Tale of two truths
by riv otter
Summary: There are always two sides to the truth. Sometimes we don't understand the true truth so we create our own truth to make ourselves understand. In the story you will follow an Oshawott (Mijumaru) named Dash and a Snivy (Tsutarja) named Penny. They each hear different sides of the story and they'll try to piece together the whole truth but their nature may be their ultimate flaw.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Meeting

Dash, an oshawott with a blue stripe across his face, wakes up from his normal nighttime sleep. He crawls out from his hiding. He is hiding from the unknowns of the night. He cautiously and shyly looks around to make sure that no one was around to attack him. His tummy starts to rumble like usual. That was his signal that it was time to find something to eat. Coming from an undeveloped group of oshawotts, he was truly wild. However unlike his oshawott allies, he was kicked out of the group because of his blue dash, because he was different. So he had to learn very quickly how to fend for himself. Being made fun of for his difference he quickly grew very shy of others and very hateful towards himself whether he realizes it or not.

He sets out to search for food. He walks around in the shadows. Carefully walking towards the river checking back now and then making sure that the predators of the forests doesn't take one of the few things he still haves. He keeps an ear out for the unknowns that could be waiting. As soon as he gets to the river he immediately jumps in the water and swims looking for that prey. He looks around in the water and very strangely found an abundance of fish. Obviously not thinking much about it, he eats as much as he can stomach.

He looks at the position of the sun.

"I have another few hours till sundown," he thought.

He looks around and starts to swim upriver to explore some of that unknown. He sees some strange figures roaming the river. He stops and examines them from a distance.

They're talking in their weird language definitely not pokèmon language. Dash trying to see if he could understand them goes a little bit closer to them. He then sees that they have their young with them and he wonders if they would attack him if he got any closer to protect their young. He sees them cast something with a long pole and he sees the splash of where this thing landed.

Curious, he swims towards this red and white devise that was floating and he pokes it.

Dash hears those figures yelling at him and he swims away hoping that they don't follow.

After insuring himself that he was not being followed by them, he gets on the land. The darkness started to show itself while the light starts to hide but even so, Dash sees a flickering light in the trees. He walks around the tree and he finds some steps and sees a sign that sees some familiar pokèmon writing but Dash doesn't know how to read. He walks up the stairs into a tree house where he sees a scraggy cleaning some glass carrying devise.

"Welcome what can I get you?" the scraggy asked.

Dash not sure what to ask for, let alone where he's at or what he is selling. He walks up to the counter making sure he doesn't looks like a threat. Dash looks around for a little and sees a pachirisu and a cyndaquil sitting in chairs with a table. Finally he asks "What do you have?"

Scraggy quickly answers, "Any berry you can think of, I'll make it into a drink."

Dash a little interested says, "I'll have an oran berry drink then." He thinks, "I never had an oran berry juice before."

Scraggy before making the drink asks for the Poké. Dash handed him the requested shiny Poké. The scraggy started to make the drink. No words were exchanged while the drink. Dash looks back at the pachirisu and the cyndaquil and sees that they are examining him. They exchanged a few words and then they looked away and continued their conversation. Scraggy gives Dash the order drink and Dash takes a sip.

"Taste funny for juice" Dash thought, "but it still taste good."

Dash takes another sip of his drink and after a little time he decides to see what the pachirisu and cyndaquil are talking about.

Walking to the table he sees that both of them are wearing handkerchief around their necks like they were in a group. Both had the same design of black with a white dot in the front. Dash sits down with them at the round table. The pachirisu looks at Dash with a non-trusting look. The cyndaquil stares at the movement outside.

Dash breaks the silent, "What are your names?"

Pachirisu exchanges looks with cyndaquil almost as if he was signaling a question without words. After a minute the pachirisu answers, "I'm Sparks"

The cyndaquil a little displeased that Sparks surrendered his name answers, "I don't know, just call me cyndaquil."

"He hit his head," Sparks explains

"Ah, well I'm Dash"

Sparks gets up in Dash's face, looks at him deep into his eyes and his soul says, "Sparky"

Dash very confused and becomes very nervous asks, "Who's Sparky?"

Sparks after staring into his truth, backs away and says, "Okay. You don't know her. Good. Sorry about that. I thought you might have known her."

Cyndaquil tells Sparks, "He drunk. He won't remember her till after the drink is gone from his blood system."

Dash looks at his drink. "That why it taste funny because it wasn't juice." he said to himself.

Sparks answers Cyndaquil "I can tell that he doesn't know her even if he's drunk. You know that, plus he hasn't drink that much yet."

Cyndaquil doesn't reply.

Sparks turns to Dash, "You didn't know that you had a drink?"

"No. This is the first time I've been in a place like this."

"Do you even know what 'this' is?"

"No"

"This is a bar. Didn't you see the sign?"

"Yes"

"Then how did you not know what this place was?"

"Because I can't read"

"Are you a non-civilized pokèmon?"

Dash looks away. "Is that what they call me these days?"

Sparks kind of surprised of the reply asks, "What else do they call you?"

Dash looks at the Cyndaquil "You look like you really want to say something," ignoring Sparks question.

Cyndaquil stands up and says, "Ya. I do. I don't trust you."

Dash stands up, "You're just afraid."

"I'm not afraid! I don't even know why Sparks is even listening to you."

"Because we need a water type," Sparks answered.

Cyndaquil answered, "But we can get a better water type than him. Come on. Look at him. He can't be trusted. Him with his stupid blue dash on his face."

Dash grabs his scalchop and readies to battle the Cyndaquil. Cyndaquil lights the flames on his back. Sparks stands in the middle of the readied battle and points a knife at each of them. Dash and Cyndaquil immediately stand down.

Sparks looks at Cyndaquil, "I'll make you a deal, if Scouter doesn't like him than we'll get rid of him. Otherwise we'll get rid of him."

"Fine."

"Dash follow us."

"In the dark?" Dash asked.

"Yes. Sometimes it's safer not to see and not let the enemy see you than to see and be seen."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sparky

Penny, the snivy, looks around in the trees, looking for something to eat. Climbing from tree to tree she quickly is making her way across the land. She doesn't stop to check out the view. She is going to complete that goal. She comes across a tree, for how many times this bold and quick creature has been to this tree, no one really knows, except perhaps the tree itself. She climbs the tree and searches for what hasn't been taken from the tree yet. She finds the prize that the tree has on a thin and weak branch. She slowly makes her way on this fragile branch. Penny then hears a voice from the same tree, "You know you're not going to make it."

Penny looks up and sees an emolga. "I have to try."

The emolga flies down to penny and makes a soft landing. "You and I both know that the branch will break if you go out there. When you do, you will go crack just like the branch. This branch is your lifeline, but sometimes we need to choose a better lifeline."

"Do you see any other branch with an apple?"

"You can't always go with the first one you see"

"You can't always play it safe" Penny smirks.

The emolga flies to the end of the branch and picks the blood red apple and hands it to Penny.

Penny takes the apple. "Why would you do that?"

"I'm saving your life. Plus you look really hungry."

"I am. But I'm a complete stranger to you. Why would you care?"

"I don't know. I usually let them fall because they wouldn't listen like you, but for some reason I thought about helping you out. Something about you I felt like, well, sometimes we just feel like we can trust someone even though we barely know them. It's very strange. I also thought it was different to see a girl here. Usually they get pushed out by the guys."

"But you're a girl too." Penny bites into the red apple.

"Ya. But I can fly. Kind of hard to stop someone from stealing when you can't catch them in the sky." She giggles.

Penny doesn't answer. She keeps biting into the apple.

The emolga breaks the silent, "Well I'm Sparky and you?"

"I'm penny"

"That's a cool name!"

Penny smiles, "Thanks. Yours isn't half bad either."

"Thanks!" Sparky giggles.

Penny discards the apple then folds her arms. "So..."

"So how are the guys treating you?"

"Meh... I have this one oshawott that likes me but I'm not interested."

"D'aww I think you would be cute with an oshawott."

Penny looks away.

"Sorry. Did I say something?"

"No. How are the guys treating you?"

"Pretty bad."

"Hm?"

"Ya."

"Why are they mean to you?"

Sparky doesn't answer.

"Too personal?"

Sparky nods.

"Okay then... That's a nice bow you got there" Penny points to the white bow on Sparky's ear.

Sparky smiles, "Thanks. You would look good with a bow too!" She puts the white bow on her tail before she can abject. "You look great!"

"Heh heh Thanks"

"We look like a team with these bows."

"A team eh?"

"Ya! I think you would fit in well with the team!"

"Wait! You already have a team?" Penny said surprisingly.

"Yep." Sparky smiles. "You want to be part of our team?"

"What does the team do?"

"You'll enjoy what we do."

"Who else is on the team?"

"Well... I have a lot of pokèmon and people on the team that work with us. I have main pokèmon that works with me. He-"

"He?" Penny interrupted. She folds her arms. "Whatever happened to the guys being mean to you?"

"Well... um... you see... he's the only one... um... that doesn't hate me."

Penny rolls her eyes.

"Alright you got me, so not every guy hates me."

Penny thinks, "Why would any guy hate her? She is very nice. Too nice maybe. What is she hiding? Can anyone be this nice? What does this mean? There are too many questions that I still have. I'm getting more questions than answers. If I'm going to get these answered there's only one thing to do."

Penny finally saids, "I'll join your team."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Scouter

Dash wakes up from a not so good semi-night, semi-day sleep. He gets up and sees that Sparks and Cyndaquil are up already. He looks outside to see Sparks and Cyndaquil talking to a patrat. Dash starts walking to the group but before he gets there the patrat runs away. Sparks and Cyndaquil turn to see Dash. Dash continues walking to the group and then the patrat unexpectedly comes back and says "Ah okay I thought that he the enemy."

"Hm?" Dash said, "None of us said anything."

Sparks answered, "Oh I did"

"But I didn't hear it and your lips never moved."

Dash hears Spark's voice in his head say "I know. I can do that."

"Woah..." Dash said out loud, "How can you do that?"

"I can use dark magic to talk to others telepathically."

"Y-you know dark magic?"

"Yep. I'm pretty good at it"

"But, doesn't that make you evil? Dark usually means that you're evil."

"Nah. I'm not evil. If I was evil I wouldn't have taken you in with us, plus I would had killed you if I was evil. You can't always assume with what you first think."

"Ah"

"I can do it too." Dash hears the patrat's voice in his head.

"Cool." Dash says out loud looking at the patrat. Dash turns to Sparks, "So... you were communicating with Cyndaquil while I was sitting with you yesterday weren't you?"

"No. I can't seem to communicate with him telepathically. I'm not sure why. Maybe when he hit his head before I met him that somehow blocked my ability."

"That is very strange"

Cyndaquil walks away from the group.

"Where's he going?" Dash asks.

"He always leaves to train," the patrat answered.

"Oh. I'm Dash"

"Hi Dash, I'm Scouter"

"So you're Scouter. You were mentioned last night.'

"I know. And I'm supposed to decide whether you join the group or not, if you live, and whether you are a spy from Sparky."

"How do you know? You weren't there and who's Sparky?"

"Sparks and I telepathically talked."

"That's right. It'll take me a while to get used to that. If you let me live that long."

"Sparks, leave me alone with Dash okay?"

"Okay" Sparks said and he walks away.

"Why did you want him to leave?" Dash asked.

"So I don't have any outside interference into deciding what to do with you."

"Ah... now who's Sparky?"

"Sparky is an emolga."

"Okay. Why are we against her?"

"We? How can you be against something that you don't know about?"

"I... I don't know. I guess I just assumed that if Sparks was the good one then Sparky was the bad one."

"Don't assume."

"Well you can't both be good or bad."

"We can."

"How?"

"The definition of good and bad changes from person to pokèmon. Plus sometimes their ideals blind them from what's truly good for all. "

"If that's so than why do you fight this battle?"

"Battle. I wish this was still a battle. This is war we're fighting. This is war. Many have died countless have be injured. There are only two sides. Theirs and ours. Lines have been drawn. This isn't a battle." Scouter pauses to gather his thoughts. "Now, to answer your question, I'm fighting for my belief that Spark's side represents. Sparky tries to do the opposite thing that we want and that will only benefit her in the very end. The only reason they fight for her is because she gives them empty promises or she is very care about how she presents her truth. Now if Sparks lets you into the group, which I believe he will, he will give you an order. There will be no explanation for the job he'll give you. You just need to trust him. There might not seem a reason right then and there but if the job isn't done then it'll greatly affect you and us later. Therefore you need to do whatever he asks you to do. You will kill someone. You might not know why. But you'll need to do it. Don't hesitate. Don't think. That is what will kill you. You think before the fight not during. For if you think when you're fighting then you will hesitate and you will take a slash in the neck. You will lose your innocent soul. Now, you may think that you can just escape the war but you're wrong. You met Sparks and I. Cyndaquil I don't trust but that's beside the point. You met one side of the war. Therefore you are an asset to this war. If you met Sparky and she learns that you met Sparks before her. You will have your life taken away faster than you can blink. Whether you like it or not, you are a part of this war now. You will die because of this war unless we can end it soon. Now I do believe that you haven't met Sparky. I do believe that about you even though Cyndaquil doesn't trust you. To be honest, I had my doubts on you at first. I thought you were just playing everyone at first, like many other spies of Sparky but as I got to read you and learn more about you, I saw that you truly didn't know Sparky and saw that everything you were talking about was true. I am proud to say that I approve you to be able to join our group. Remember what I have told you because that is what will keep you alive."

"I'm glad you believe me. And I will keep those words that you told me close to my thoughts. I also trust you. You seem very smart and because I'm considered non-civilized by most others and I do want to learn about some of the things you guys do when we're not killing anyone."

Scouter smiles, "I want to learn a little bit about not be civilized because we clearly have different thought processes. You are also the first non-civilized to not try to attack me. You are very different. You also have that stripe on your face and I think that's what makes you very cool and interesting."

Dash smiles, "Thanks. I think out of everyone, for some reason, I trust you the most in the team."

"Sparks is also someone you can trust. He will tell it to you how it is. If he doesn't like you, he'll tell you."

"Well, I guess that's good."

"So do you mind if I test you?"

"Test me? With what?"

"Your fighting skills."

"Um... okay. Like I said earlier I trust you. So, what's my target?"

"Me."

"You? Why you?"

"What's the point of using a stationary target? Your enemy isn't going to sit still and let you beat on them."

"True..." Dash grabs his scalchop, "Ready?"

Scout readies himself, "Never ask your target if they're ready because if you're weaker and they prepare themselves, you've already lost. The only way to beat them is to beat them when they're not ready."

Dash charges at Scout. He swings his shell at him but Scout backs away out of the range of Dash's arm swing. Dash tries to swing at Scout again and again.

"If you do the same thing over and over again," Scout said, "Then your target will be able to read you." Scout on Dash's next swing disarms Dash by using his energy and momentum.

Dash surprised to see Scouter with his scalchop says, "I have a lot to learn."

"Nah. You just need practice. That's a new style of fighting I saw there. Never have I seen an oshawott swing his scalchop like that. The way you were swinging it not only this way," Scout does the movement with Dash's scalchop, "but you also did a back swing too that was pretty powerful too. So you do have increased swinging speed. Plus I noticed that you switched hands in the mist of the battle. It confused me for a second but I was able to recover. That's another way to defeat your enemy. Confuse them into making a mistake."

"That makes sense."

"But you can't do the same move over and over and over again because your enemy will predict that move and be able to disarm you just like I have done." Scout hands back Dash's scalchop. "Keep good hold of that because next time you lose that, you may not get it back with you in your grave."

"I can tell that this war is very serious."

'It is. Can I ask a question about you?"

"Sure."

"Since you're an oshawott and oshawotts live in groups, how come you're not in that group? When Sparks found you, you were alone. That's rare."

Dash looks away for a minute. "You see, it wasn't my chose to be alone. I wanted to be in the group. But I was different. This dash, this blue dash was the main reason I was kicked out. They wondered if I was diseased and that I would be the one to kill them off. So they got rid of me. Like a piece of waste. When I was young. My scalchop just finished growing. So I was about two maybe three months old when they got rid of me. So I had to learn by myself how to survive, how to fight, how to live, and how to avoid. Somehow... I lived against all odds. I was lucky to meet the right pokèmon to help me. Of course in survival when you meet some bad people and pokèmon too. I met some who used me, beat me, and teased me. That's why or at least I believe why, I'm wary of many things." Tears start to form in Dash's eyes.

"Well... Why don't you try to go back into the group?"

Dash starts to cry, "Because every time I go near the group they chase me away and if they catch me, they beat me to near death sometimes."

Scouter wipes the tears from Dash's face. "There. There. Everything will be alright. It's there lost that they kicked you out. You're a great oshawott. I'm glad that I have gotten a chance to meet you, even if you don't join the group."

"But... I might join the group."

"It's all in your hands. You can choose whither you join or not. After Sparks hears that I believe that you don't know, he'll give you the choice."

"I see."

"Plus you should know that you want to join the group not that you might. Because once you join the group, you can't leave it."

"Ah... well, I do want to join the group. I feel like I could learn a lot from you guys and I do feel safe around you guys."

"Well, I'm glad that you do feel that way and I hope to learn as much from you as you learn from us."

"I hope you do learn a lot from me."

"So do I"

"Have you been messaging Sparks while we were talking?"

"No. He has been trying to talk to me but I haven't answered because your not a threat. He wants me to tell him if you start getting violent or if I feel that you are a spy or if you're escaping. But as you know I don't think you'll do any of that."

"How long did it take you to start using telepathic communication?"

"A few weeks to start connecting to others minds and a few more months to start using messages."

"Connect?"

"Ya. You have to tap into their thoughts before you can send a message."

"Ah. So you can read their thoughts?"

"No. You see when you think, the thought starts in the brain and is read in a different part of the brain. So, when Sparks and I send a message, that message goes from our brain to your brain. If we could read thoughts, you would know about because you wouldn't actually hear your own thoughts but we can't because thought processes are too fast to intercept."

"Ah."

"Yep. Maybe one day I'll start teaching you how to send messages. I know you can do it, considering how easy it was to send messages to you."

"That would be very cool."

"Ya. Of course it'll be a little before I can."

"Why?"

"Well, I need permission of Sparks to do and even though he trusts you in being in the group, he still doesn't trust you with that kind of power."

"That's powerful? Just sending messages?"

"No, but we use dark magic to send messages which once you are introduced, you are open to endless possibilities. Another thing is that if your mind is weak, than you won't be able to control yourself. The dark magic will. That's why Cyndaquil isn't taught dark magic. That and I don't trust him to teach him."

"He doesn't trust me."

"Because you're a water type and he's a fire type. He didn't trust the last water type either."

"What happen to the water type?"

"She was captured by Sparky. When we tried to safe her, we found her dead. She was tortured, trying to interrogate and when there was wind that we were coming, they flat-lined her."

"That's sad."

"Ya... but that's what happens when you're in war. Like I said earlier, you will lose your innocents."

"I thought I've already lost my innocents being kicked out of the oshawott clan was me losing my innocents."

Scouter silently chuckles, "No, you haven't lost innocents yet."

"When will I?"

"When you can't put a reason to what is happening and your thought process has changed."

"Oh. So it's a bad thing."

"Nah. What can be bad is how we react to it."

"Oh."

"Yep. I'm going to tell Sparks it's okay to come back."

"Okay."

They both stand there in silent for a few minutes as Scouter converses with Sparks telepathically.

Finally Scouter says, "Okay, he'll be here in about five minutes."

"Okay."

"So, do you want to join the group?"

"Well, I have been thinking about it the whole day, and I came to realize that it will be very dangerous, and I may die, but as you said earlier, when I met all of you guys, I'm an asset of the war now even if I don't join. Now, I glad to meet all of you guys. Well, I could go without meeting Cyndaquil though. You And Sparks had taken me in, and even though you didn't know me, you two had trusted me even though I could have been on Sparky's side. I could have been the enemy. But you all trusted the true that I presented you, and that truth is the true truth. I think... no... I know I want to join the group."

Scouter smiles, "I'm glad you want to join and I'll help you during the tough times during this war."

"And I'll help too," said Sparks as he walks into the conversation.

"Hi Sparks," both Scouter and Dash.

Sparks looks at Scouter, "Has this little guy been giving you any trouble?"

"He's only in trouble for giving me a good partner to talk with."

"Oh he is?" Sparks looks at the oshawott nervously standing there.

"Yep. I believe that he isn't part of Sparky's group nor does he know her and I know that if he wants to join that he would be great in the group."

"Oh, but Cyndaquil doesn't trust him."

"He wouldn't trust any water type we throw in his face.

Sparks laughs, "That's true." Sparks looks at Dash, "So do you want to join the group?"

Dash looking him in the eyes says, "Yep."

Sparks smiles, "Okay. Welcome to the team. I'll get you the handkerchief with our team symbol as soon as I can get it."

"Cool. Why is it when I wasn't part of the team, you called it a group but when I join, you called it a team?"

Scouter answers, "Because on the outside, we look like another group but on the inside, were an unbreakable team."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Penny's decision

Penny and Sparky walk through the rain, the dirty mud, and weaving between the tall trees. They both remain silent as the coldness of the rain and wind starts to consume their bodies. Penny shivering starts to be a natural movement. Sparky turns around many times to check on Penny to make sure she's still following. Sparky enters a hole in a tree to get out of the rain and Penny still following enters behind her.

Penny shivering says, "I told you that it would rain and we should take shelter."

Sparky answers looking shaking the water off her, "I know but, I needed to make sure that even in the toughest times; that you would still be by my side and you stayed. Kind of surprised me honestly. Are you okay?"

"Y-ya." Penny says barely audible. Her shivering becomes the only movement that she can do as it becomes more pronounce. Her eyes barely stay open as she sits.

Sparky putting her hand on her, "You're not okay. You're shivering uncontrollably!" Sparky starts to wipe the water off Penny. Sparky's fur absorbs the mud and water. Penny looks at her with a blank stare. Sparky lightly slaps Penny's face. Penny's eyes show a little more color. Sparky wraps her arms around her to warm Penny up. "Penny, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you so hard. Penny don't die on me!" Life starts to come back to Penny's eyes. Sparky still holding Penny, feels that Penny's shivering has slowed down. Sparky looks into her eyes, "Are you still with me? Are you still here?"

Penny musters out mumbles saying, "Y-y-yes." Penny rubs her own head.

"I'm sorry Penny"

Penny takes a minute before replying in a breathy voice, "It's okay. Just listen to me next time I tell you something."

"I will now. Now that I know that you will still be by my side even in the toughest of times."

"Well, I don't know about that, I almost died today. If you listen to me at first then I wouldn't have been at risk of dying."

Sparky releases Penny. She looks down and says, "I know, but when I thought that it was too prefect to be true. I thought that you were part of Spark's group and you were just here to spy on my plans."

"Who's Sparks?"

"Now I know you don't know him."

"Who's Sparks?"

Sparky looks at her silently.

"Who's Sparks?"

"Sparks," Sparky sighs, "Sparks is my brother. He's a pachirisu."

"That would explain the similar names."

"Ya."

"Why would it matter if I met Sparks?"

"He makes me look like the bad one. Plus if you were part of his group you might be ordered to kill me."

"That's terrible!"

Sparky hides her face in Penny's chest. "He also tries to kill all the friends that I make. So you're in danger if you stay with me."

"Hey, look at me." Sparky looks at Penny with teary eyes. "I won't let them touch you and they won't get to me."

Sparky smiles, "T-thanks. I won't let them get to you either. I as you know have started a team to fight off Sparks's force. Are- Are you still in it?"

"Yes. I now understand why you pushed me so hard and so far. I might have done the same thing. Plus some believe that in order to find your limits, you need to push them"

"That's true. Do you understand if you stay with me, you will probably have to kill someone if I ask you to? They will attack and your life will be in danger."

"I understand."

"Good."

"Where's this third guy in our team?"

"We have more than two teammates but you and him are the main ones now."

"Am I going to meet him?"

"Not today, he doesn't like the rain or water."

Penny looks outside. "It's raining very hard and it doesn't seem like it'll let up for a while."

"Like the tears I don't shed."

There was a very still pause in the air.

Penny broke the stillness with, "Tell me more about your brother."

"um...okay." She takes a deep breath. "Sparks, a long time ago, was very nice. He would take care of me and love me and protect me but, something happened to him, exactly what I'm not sure, but he started to attack me when I started a team. He said what I was doing was evil."

Penny interrupts, "What were you doing?"

Sparky continues ignoring Penny's question, "He started his group earlier than me so his team was more developed than mine so his team would pretty much kill off my team, literally. I've lost so many pokèmon and people. He is against people. He doesn't like that I work with them. He has shed lots of blood. The tears I shed and the blood he pains. Who's the evil one? Am I really the evil one? Or is he?"

Penny replies, "Well, by the way you tell the story, it sounds like he's the evil one."

"You're still not sure, are you?"

"Well no. I've only met you."

"Come. Let me show you something."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The First Mission

Dash, Sparks, Cyndaquil, and Scouter sit around in a circle in their meeting.

"As you all know, except for Dash, I was ordered to watch this house that we believed Sparky was and still is working with," said Scouter, "and now I'm here to give you my report. This house has four humans living inside it. This building has many other humans going to it on the weekends. They are older than the ones we attacked last time. Sparky does go into this house and she does make contact with the humans inside. Now, I wasn't able to figure out why she goes in there but she gets must get something, otherwise she wouldn't go back to the house. She must be getting food, or water, or a safe place to stay there or something that she hides from my view, either way, they're helping her in some way. They all are healthy so if we decide to attack them than we should do it swiftly and quietly otherwise, we're going to have big problems in defeating them. Now their lights are turned off about an hour past sundown. They can be an easy target if we time it right. I was able to get in the house when the humans were away. There are two beds on the first floor and one on ground level. I can assume that two of them sleep together. They have a tree in the yard that we can hide in but Dash is an oshawott and oshawotts can't climb trees so we either have to have someone carry him up the tree or he'll have to wait in the forest. With my evaluation I believe their threat level is a four."

Sparks said, "That was a very good evaluation Scouter. So level four eh?"

"Yes level four."

"Level four?" Dash asked.

"We rank our enemies with a ranking system one through five. Five being the worse." Sparks answered. Sparks turns to scouter, "What do you think we should do?"

"Now, I don't think that they are giving her useful items like the last group, but they must be punished still."

"So, Massacre?" Sparks asked.

"Not that hard."

"Killing one?"

"Lighter."

"Burning?"

"Bingo."

"Alright, so our mission is going to be burning the house. Don't help any that gets lit. Report here before sundown and we'll make our way."

Scouter, Cyndaquil, and Dash reply with, "Let's go!"

"Meeting over." Sparks said.

Every one leaves the meeting hole. Sparks and Cyndaquil go on their separate paths. Dash and Scouter look at each other.

"First mission, are you excited?" asked Scouter.

"Yep." Dash said happily.

"Now for the mission you're going to foreshadow me."

"Oh. Okay." Dash said in a disappointing voice.

"Don't worry you'll be part of the fun too."

"Ah."

"You don't seem too excited anymore."

"No. It'll still be fun."

"Only while you're doing the deed."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"You'll understand when the time comes."

"Um... okay."

"Ya... sorry it's something that can't be explained, only felt."

"Okay."

"So, Dash what do you want to do?"

"You want to fish?"

"Hmm... Is that what undeveloped oshawotts do?"

"Um... yes but please don't call me undeveloped."

"Okay Dash."

"Thanks, so fishing?"

"Okay."

Dash and Scouter leave the meeting area. All know that this mission could be their last. Everyone except Dash. He is inexperience. Dash teaches Scouter about fishing and Scouter tries fish for the first time. They enjoy the time of fishing but time always is moving and it was time for them to get back to the meeting. Sparks is the only one there when Scouter and Dash show up. They all remind silent waiting for Cyndaquil which he arrives minutes before the light hides.

Sparks speaks, "Okay we all remember what to do? We're going to burn down a house that has been working with Sparky. Scouter, you'll be keeping watch making sure that no one is coming. Cyndaquil, you're going to be the burner, since you're the only fire type. I'll be staying close to Cyndaquil in case someone tries to stop him. Dash, as Scouter has told you, you're going to foreshadow him and learn. Now if this works perfectly this shouldn't take very long. Ready?"

Everyone replies, "Yes."

"Okay. Let's go."

Sparks walks to the direction of the tall house. No one says a word during the whole walk there. The light of the day has faded and darkness has taken over. Dash would normally be in hiding but tonight, he is not afraid of the dark. He is not afraid of the unknown. He is part of this team and he knows it now. He is a part of something that he feels is right. The team is doing the right things in his eyes. They get to their positions and they see the house still has lights on. They only whisper from now on till the mission is over so they don't get caught and get blinded by the light.

"How long has it been passed sundown?" Dash asked Scouter.

"About thirty minutes."

"So, How long till we get to see fire?"

"About thirty minutes."

"Oh. That was stupid of me to ask."

"No it wasn't, with you always living in nature; you had no use of learning times. Do you even know what a minute is?"

"Well, actually that's one of the few things the oshawotts taught me before I was kicked out."

"Interesting."

"Ya."

"Okay, we need to be quiet now"

Dash and Scouter keep watch. Neither scouter nor Dash sees anything when the final light goes out. Sparks and Cyndaquil go towards the house. The front door opens. Sparks and Cyndaquil freeze in place. It was so silent that you couldn't even hear the breathing of any of the team members. The door then closes. After a few seconds, Sparks and Cyndaquil move towards the house again. Scouter spots some movement coming from the front door. He sends a message to Sparks warning him about the movement. Sparks gets his knifes out ready for the worse. Scouter trying to figure what thing that is moving is. Cyndaquil and Sparks make it to the house but before he could start burning the house, the thing moves around the house. Scouter tells Sparks about the movement of the thing going around the corner.

"Hey you! What are you doing?" said the thing.

"Why do you care?" answered Sparks.

"Because it's my master's home and I live here."

Scouter and Dash looking from the tree watching what is happening. Dash finally says, "Is that a Zorua?"

Scouter looking at it closer whispers, "Ya, it is." He then sends the message to Sparks.

Zorua's ear twitches from the voices in the trees. He looks at Sparks and says, "I will protect my master's home! You won't get any fire on the house."

Sparks and Cyndaquil look at each other both not taking the Zorua seriously. "You may haven't notice," Sparks said, "But there's two of us and only one of you."

"Who said I'm alone?"

Neither Sparks nor Cyndaquil said anything.

Zorua finally said, "Plus, we know it's not just you two."

Both Scouter and Dash get pushed out of the trees. Scouter gets right up while Dash remains on the ground a little confused. Scouter picks Dash up on his feet, while looking for what pushed them out of the trees. He sees them run to the Zoura's side.

"How did you know?" Sparks asked.

"It must have been Sparky." Scouter messaged.

The two finally make it to Zorua's side.

"Eevees!" Sparks said, "This isn't going the way it was suppose to. Burn it now Cyndaquil!'

"No!" said Zoura.

The eevees and Zoura charge at them. Scouter and Dash run in to intercept them with Sparks. The eevees were the fastest ones there and they passed the unready Dash and Scouter. Sparks see the coming eevees but the smart eevees spread around Sparks so he would have to choice one target. He tackles the left one and throws a knife at the right one but eevee dodges the knife and charges at Cyndaquil. Scouter and Dash both dealing with the Zoura fails to see that the eevee is going to attack their flame maker. Cyndaquil gets one puff of fire at the house when eevee tackles him. The grass around the house lights on fire but quickly goes out due to the grass being cared for and watered well. The house remains untouched by the fire. Zoura tackles Dash and transform into an exact replica of Dash. Both Dash's roll around fighting each other and Scouter can't tell which is the real Dash and which is the impostor. Sparks holds down an eevee with the tip of his knife and the eevee fearful for her life stays still. Scouter and Sparks look at each other as the two Dashes fight. Sparks then tells Scouter, "Go help Cyndaquil, let them two fight." Scouter nods and runs to help Cyndaquil, who is being clawed by the eevee. Scouter tackles the eevee off Cyndaquil. Cyndaquil, still remembering Sparks's earlier order, gets up takes another breath and spits out another fire ball at the house. This time the house goes up in flames. Everyone stops fighting and watch the fire spread. The Zoura goes back into his normal form. The Zoura and the eevees watch helplessly as the tower of flame expand, engulfing the house. Dash, Scouter, Sparks, and Cyndaquil walk to the tree line to watch. Sparks counts out as the people run out of the house. "One, two, three." When no one else came out they all exchanged looks at each other. They watched the people crying their tears of pain and suffering but behind those walls of tears, Sparks's team knows that they helped the enemy. Sparks, Scouter, Cyndaquil, and Dash again look at each other but longer. Long enough to tell that no one was proud for what they did. Every one of them regretted it. The house, with their dreams, falls down in a fiery mess. The tears of the hopeless broken people are burning Sparks's team. Sparks, Scouter, Dash slowly turn away with their heads down. There is no celebrating for completing this mission. They turn around for one last time, to see the damage they had done, and then they finally walked off with their back turned from the damaged.

"See what I mean. They are evil. They burned down the house and killed a person in the process all because they know I went there." Sparky said in the tree watching the burning with Penny.

"I see that. Now I believe you."

"I'm glad we're on the same page now."

"Why didn't we help them?"

"If we stopped them, then there would be doubt. This way, there is no doubt. Now you see that they're serious and they'll do destruction and they will kill to complete their mission."

"True." Penny pauses for a few seconds, "I know that oshawott."

Sparky somewhat surprised asked, "You do?"

"Ya. His name is Dash. He was the one to have a crush on me but I shooed him away, remember?"

"Ya. I do remember. Interesting to know. Good to know too."

Penny doesn't answer. She sits staring into the forever changing bright red flames.

Sparky then said, "Let's go. We can't do anything now. Let's go home and get an apple and get some rest before they burn that down."

"Alright."

They leave the area to go back home.

Dash, Sparks, Cyndaquil, and Scouter, got back to base from their speechless walk. Dash sits hanging his head low. Scouter, Sparks, and Cyndaquil look at each other in silence. Scouter sits next to Dash to comfort him. Dash breaks the silence, "Why did we have to do this?"

Scouter answers, "We can't let Sparky gain any inch."

"Why did we have to do this?" Dash looks at Sparks.

Sparks answers, "We had to."

Dash stands up in Sparks face yelling, "We didn't have to! She wasn't there controlling you! We didn't have to. You've given me no reason to fight against her! Nothing! All I've heard was that she is the bad one! No prove! Nothing! We didn't have to! Dash quiets down, "We didn't have to."

Sparks exchanges looks with Scouter. He looks back at Dash, "I assume I can't hide this information any longer. I couldn't show back when we met because, I wasn't sure if you would join the team or not and you would have resisted."

"Resisted?" Dash asked.

"Yes. You would have. In order for you to see the truth I will need to use dark magic and you were still iffy with dark magic and since you've never been around it, you would have been taken over. But now, you've been around it by hanging out with Scouter and by receiving messages from Scouter and I. You may not realize it but we emanate dark magic. Some, like you, don't get affected at all by this. However, many are greatly affected by it. They get angry enough to attack us. They could also be very sad, sometimes sad enough to be suicidal or be in a deep depression for a while. When I saw that you were still being yourself when you were around both me and Scouter I sent a message to see how your soul will take the dark magic. As we can see, your soul has not been affected."

"What does it mean when my soul isn't affected by dark magic?"

"It usually means that you haven't been blinded by the light. Blinded from the fake truth. If you had stayed with the oshawott group, then you probably would be effected by the dark magic because, they would have taught you what they believe was true instead of teaching what is true. You being kicked out of the group could have been the best thing to happen to you, but with some consequences and hardships. You would have been blinded by the light like almost the entire world but you're not. No one taught you how to think or what to believe. You had to learn that on your own and very quickly, I may add, and at a very young age. Most learn at a later age because they are safe and even when they do it is extremely altered."

"Ah, I see."

"I'll show you the truth in the morning."

"I want to know now!"

"But it's very late."

"So? We can sleep a little bit later"

Sparks looks at Scouter. Scouter gives Sparks the "go ahead" nod. Sparks looks at Dash and said, "Okay, let's go."

"Yay! Now, how am I going to see this truth?"

"We're going to warp us to my memories."

"You can do that?"

"Yes. Now grab my hand and close your eyes."

"Why do I need to close my eyes?" Dash said while grabbing Sparks' hand.

"Because you may be used to very low exposer to dark magic, but this trick we're about to do is definitely more than a low exposer."

"And closing my eyes will help?"

"Yes. It doesn't give a way to enter. Because you won't see the darkness and if you can't it your imagination can go wild."

"Um... okay" Dash closes his eyes.

Sparks looks at Scouter, "Coming?"

Scouter nods. Sparks and Scouter then start to glow but not a light glow. A dark glow. Dash keeps his eyes close and the dark glow engulfs his body, but not his soul. Slowly Dash's, Sparks's, and Scouter's body start to disappear in the darkness. Finally, what seemed like an eternity for Dash, he hears Sparks' voice say, "Okay open your eyes." Dash does what he is told. He looks around and sees that he's in very dark place, but for some reason he can see far in the darkness. There is nothing around. It seems like if you were to walk only in one direction you wouldn't see anything nor move anywhere.

Dash finally asks, "How is this showing me the truth?"

Scouter looks at Dash and says, "You think it's easy using that advance of dark magic?"

Dash hesitates to answer so Sparks answers for him, "It isn't. We need to recharge a little. We can't just use magic all over the place."

"Oh." Dash said.

No one said a word for the next few minutes. They all look at each other acting like something should be said, but none of them could break the deep silence. Finally Sparks gets up and with one movement of his arm he changes the dark landscape into a healthy forest and Sparky is seen talking to herself. Everyone stays silent when Sparky starts talking.

"Okay. So we all know what the goal is? We need to take control of everyone. We got to have control and keep it. We're not going to lose it again. As long as Sparks and his stupid team are alive we'll never get any ground. So we need to take him out first. He'll be our focus before we can start our true goal on controlling the land. To-," The image fuzzes away and disappeared.

"Sorry Dash," Sparks said, "That's all I can do for the night."

Dash looks at Sparks, "It's okay, it did answer some of my questions. So that's Sparky?"

Scouter answers, "Yes." Scouter looks at Dash, "Let's go back." Dash nods. Scouter looks at Sparks next and says, "We'll use my magic to get back." He turns where both Dash and Sparks were in front of him, "Okay now hold my hand both of you and Dash close your eyes,"

Sparks and Dash grab Scouter's hand and Dash closes his eyes to go back to the lightened world.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Spying on your own

Dash wakes up in the middle of the day again but this time he was the first one up. Cyndaquil is missing again, although this time of his disappearance is earlier than normal. Dash sits on a warmed rock waiting for the other two to wake up. Dash starts to talk to himself, "So, Sparky is the bad one? Sparks' memory proved that. Who was Sparky talking to? To herself? That's a very strange thing to talk about out loud. It's kind of strange to talk to yourself in general. Sparky. Sparky. Sparky. Why do you have to be the evil one? As Scouter has said before, 'The definition of good and bad changes from person to pokémon.' Sparky is clearly the bad one though. Why would Scouter say that to me? This is very confusing. I need to get these thoughts together and make sure I understand."

Sparks walks out of the sleeping quarters and makes his way towards Dash. Dash swings around to the approaching squirrel. "Some interesting words you were saying there."

"Oh... you heard."

"Ya... Scouter was the same way when he started. He had trouble putting the pieces together too. Every time you think you know the path you're going it suddenly it changes. It takes a while to see what is going on. The worst part is that no one can help you. You have to do it on your own. They may be able to guide you or hurt you but in the very end only you travel the path you're on."

"I see. So this confusion is normal?"

"Yes. Even I was confused at first when I started fighting against Sparky. I was wondering if I was doing the right thing. If it was right to fight against my own little sister. Sparky answered that for me when she tried to capture me, probably to get rid of me."

Scouter walks out of the sleeping quarters rubbing his eyes. He examines the surrounding area to see the missing body on the team. "It's a little early for him to disappear like that isn't it?"

Dash answers, "I thought the same thing."

Sparks looks into the sky, "Hmm... it is very strange, he's not the type to run off without the whole team being awake. What to do? What to do? Should we go look for him?" Sparks asks directing the question at Scouter.

"Eventually," Scouter answers.

"Okay, Dash I'm going to have you pick up something for me. If he isn't here when you get back, we'll search for him."

"Okay. Where do you need me to go? What am I picking up?"

"You'll need to follow the trail, to the town. You'll see a purple shop ran by a meowth and you'll need to go in and say 'that your picking up something for Sparks' and the password is 'Let's go to the back.'"

"Password? Why would I need a password?"

"Well, there has been a problem with stealing other pokémon's items in the shop so the owner decided to create a password system to help prevent stealing."

"What am I picking up?"

"Just an item."

"What item?"

"You'll find out, just don't open the box it's in. Oh, and don't let anyone know you're picking this up for me."

"Um... okay. Why not?"

"My name is frowned in that town. Sparky spread a rumor about me and my dark magic. Said that, 'Because I know dark magic that I'm the evil one. That I'm the one that has lost my mind. Everything that knows dark magic is evil.' Blah. She lies through her teeth and they just eat up that trash. So, I'm not allowed into the town. Only that one store will sell to me but they have ties to all the other places in the town so they can get a lot of the things I ask for."

"Okay. So the password is 'let's go to the back' and don't let anyone know I'm picking up for you."

"And don't look at it. You'll see it when you deliver it."

"Okay. Shall I go now?"

"Yes"

Dash leaves for town. He has never been in a developed area before. He replays the password in his head multiple times. "Let's go to the back. Let's go to the back. Let's go to the back." He walks on this path that stays linear clearly not natural. He passes by a few families of pokémon each giving him an alert but wary look. Some of the parents even stood between him and their children. "That's very strange," Dash thought to himself, "Is everyone in the developed areas always this paranoid? They act like I'm

going to attack them or something. Why would I do that? Why would they think that way? Do they think that way with everyone that happens to pass them by on the same trail?" Dash without thinking another thought sees the developed town in front of him. He said to himself, "I know I'm on a mission but I'm going to explore a little." He looks at the tall structures around him. Most of the colors in the town were bright and well taken care of with exception to a few abandoned buildings here and there. Dash had never seen colors so bright. There were banners all over the place some with words that Dash can't understand. He sees the wide variety pokémon there but not the one that he needs to find. Of course he hasn't been really looking. All these colors. All these movements. This was fascinating to him. After a few minutes of checking out the new world, he finally gets on with his mission by going to find that meowth. He finds the dark purple building easily spotted being around all the bright colors. Out of the whole town, around this building was the least populated. Dash walks into this building and see the meowth, clearly bored, sitting behind the counter with his head resting on the counter. The lighting was dim but it didn't disturb Dash. He walks to the counter and said, "I'm here to pick up a package for Sparks." Dash expecting a reaction from the meowth but he doesn't react so he continues in a softer and quieter voice, "Let's go to the back." This time the meowth looks at Dash and nods and then walks across the room to many boxes and he looks through the boxes and gives one of them to Dash.

"May your trip back be safe." the meowth said.

"Thanks." Dash said. He walks out of the store. He holds the box close to him. He notices that every takes a note of him and the package that he carries. Dash looks at the box and hides the label so no one can identify it. Even though he can't read he could see the writing and he assumed that was how meowth was able to identify it from the others. He walks normally out of the town checking over his shoulder making sure no one was following. After he knows that no one was follow he shakes the box. The box wasn't very heavy. The item didn't make much noise. It sounded like some kind of fabric but maybe that was what he used to protect the item. That temptation of seeing what's inside is growing exponentially. Dash tries to keep his mind off the box but that box always remind under his nose. Dash start to hum a tune trying to distract himself. It seemed so much longer to walk back than it did to walk to the town.

Finally, he made it back to Sparks and Scouter and he immediately hands the box to Sparks so that his temptation doesn't get the better of him in front of them. After examining the box, Sparks and Scouter look at each other and then they smile at Dash. "The box wasn't opened." Sparks said, "Good job." He hands the box to Dash. "You can open it now."

Dash, a little mad, said, "Then why did you two have me walk all the way over there and all the way back?"

Scouter answers, "Your temptation is a weakness. If you can control your temptation, then you can't be distracted by it."

"I see." Dash looks at the box, "You sure I can open it now or is this another test?"

Sparks said, "You can open it. You passed the test."

Dash opens the box and pulls out a folded fabric. He unfolds it and looks at it. It was all dark except for a white dot. He stares at it for a little figuring out what it means. He then sees that the handkerchief that he was holding was the same that Scouter and Sparks were wearing. Dash puts it on proudly. He looks around, "So no cyndaquil I see."

"Yep." They both reply.

"So we need to go looking for him?"

"Yep." Sparks answers.

"So what's the plan?"

"We're all going to spilt up and look for him."

"So I'm not going to shadow Scouter this time?"

"Nope."

Dash nods and they all go their own direction. Dash walks into the dark forest. Sparks walks the path that was the opposite way of the town. Scouter also checks the forest in a different direction of Dash. Looking for Cyndaquil Dash knew would be very hard but he has walked this forest before and he knows how to track stuff down. Dash talks to himself, "This is now my element. I have lived in this forest for many years. Only recently have I been somewhat out of touch with nature. Living with, what they call themselves 'developed,' has been hard to understand them sometimes but I guess they don't understand me at points too. This war is hard. I can't believe that I had indirectly killed a human. How I will survive this war; I really don't know. Maybe death will get rid of all my guilt that I will gain but I will help Sparks with this war till I am dead. Hopefully I won't die yet. Death. Life. This war is going to change me. Maybe it already has changed me." Dash stops to listen to a sound. He continues, "Scouter is very interesting. He is developed but he wants to learn from me. He fighting for Sparks but he doesn't admit that he is fighting for the good side nor does he say he's fighting for what's right." He stops again. He was about to start up again but he hears Cyndaquil's voice in the distance. Dash hears him towards the direction of a faint light but he hears another voice. No. There's a third voice too. He slowly, secretly, and silently walks towards the direction of the voices. He hides behind a tree and finally sees Cyndaquil but he can't see the other two. Dash walks around to change the angle of his viewing point. He sees the other two figures. It's a snivy and emolga. "Is that Sparky?" Dash thought. He tries to listen in but he's too far away and too worried about getting caught to move any closer. He stands there for a few minutes. They all seem to be having an enjoyable conversation. He also notices that Cyndaquil doesn't have his handkerchief on but instead he has a bow tie on. Dash feels a light tap on his shoulder. Dash quickly turns around and he sees Scouter. Scouter gives Dash the 'be quiet' signal. Scouter moves up closer to the talkative group and Dash follows him. They were both so silent that their breath was inaudible and the soft dark ground absorbed their footing. Sparky's ear twitches towards them. She then looks into Dash's and Scouter's direction and Dash and Scouter immediately freeze in place. Sparky whispers to Cyndaquil and he walks the opposite direction of Dash and Scouter. Sparky then continues talking to Penny, but the conversation was clearly less serious and less important. They stand there a few minutes listening in when Scouter gets attacked from behind. Dash looks over and sees Scouter and Cyndaquil on the ground fighting but Scouter was just trying to get Cyndaquil off of him while Cyndaquil was clawing away at him trying to kill him. Blood of Scouter has already hit the ground. Before Dash could help Scouter, Sparky is already on him also clawing at him and shocking him. Scouter's looks at Dash for one last time but his look told Dash that it wasn't his fault and that it was meant to be this way. Scouter shoots a dark ball at Dash and Dash's body absorbs the dark ball. Scouter's last reaction to Dash was him yelling, "Run!" Dash makes eye contact with the wary Penny, who was on the sideline of the attack. Dash runs away from the commotion. Before he was out of range of the sounds, they stopped.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A New Alliance

Dash runs and runs and runs through the endlessly tall trees. There were so many more trees this time around. Dash runs but he knows that they are faster than him in this element. He finally sees a tree line and runs out. He takes a break and looks around still keeping an ear out for the slightest sign that it was time to start moving again. He sees that this is a grass plain. Not exactly an advantage for Dash. He is not familiar with grass plains. Only with water and forests. He turns around and thinks, "Do I go back into the danger zone where it's the most dangerous or do I risk getting lost or be caught in the open?"

Before he has time to answer the question he hears, "He's over here!"

Dash looks up and sees Sparky flying around looking at him. Dash runs into the grass lands but the eyes in the air keeps following him. It was easy to follow Dash because the grass moved down where ever he went. Dash failed to put that into account. Sparky looks up and sees that he is unknowingly running towards a river. Sparky swoops down in front of Dash and Dash changes direction to avoid Sparky. Dash after running a little ways more starts to lose the effect of the adrenaline and he starts to grow weak and slows down.

Sparky knowing that at his state he wouldn't be able to do much, lands in front of him. Dash stops his movement and catches his breath. Penny and Cyndaquil catch up to the tired Dash. Dash sits down with his tired head down. Penny, Sparky, and Cyndaquil all notice the new handkerchief around Dash's neck.

Cyndaquil finally said, "Let's just kill him and get it over with." He makes a movement towards Dash but Penny puts her arm out to stop him. Dash looks up finally still breathing very hard.

Sparky said, "No. Penny is right."

Dash said, "Why don't you kill me evil one?"

Sparky laughs, "You really think I'm the evil one?"

"Ya."

"Well I'm not. Sparks is."

Dash stops listening.

"Look at me Dash." Sparky said softy. "I'm trying to work with you. I could have killed you like the others but I didn't. Don't I get a fair chance to tell my side of the story?"

"Ya. You do. I guess was assuming you were guilty before hearing your side. You were guilty until proven guilty in my head. I'm sorry 'bout that. You just killed a good friend of mine."

"Sorry about that but we had to."

"I guess," Dash looks at Penny, "Haven't seen you in a while."

Penny smiles and said, "It sure has been a while."

Dash looks at Sparky, "Okay. Now your side of the story."

Sparky looks at him, "You'll only half listen for now. We'll talk about it later."

"You'll better tell me now while I'm here."

Sparky looks into Dash's eyes, "Fine. We'll do it now." She turns and looks into the sky. "I know this may be strange to you but please give me as much attention as you gave my brother when you met him and introduced you in this war."

Dash looks back, "Okay."

"Now Sparks probably said I started the war, but the truth is, he did. He wants to eliminate all humans and pokémon that follow them, including me. He has had horrible experiences with humans. When he was young, he had a little girl as an owner. She and him were the best of friends. They did everything together. They played. They ate. They even slept. I knew this stuff because I was on the outside watching in. I was his little sister and I followed him where ever he went. He was my idol. But, the people had to leave. They couldn't take him because of the landlord's orders but he didn't understand. His life went downhill from there. He started a hate towards humans. Slowly the hate grew as the darkness inside of him grew. Somehow, he learned dark magic. I think someone else taught him but I'm not sure who. When I saw what was going on, I started to oppose him and when I started to oppose him, he and his team targeted me along with the humans. I know there are bad humans out there but there are some good. If he wasn't targeting all humans, I probably wouldn't have opposed him but I wouldn't have supported him either. Do you understand me? Do you believe me?"

Dash looks down, "I'm not sure what to believe now. Sparks showed you talking to someone to me."

"Was that in a dark world or something similar?"

"Ya."

"That was a world he created with his dark magic. He created that image of me. What he did in there wasn't real."

"Created image?"

"Yes."

Dash does reply. He tries to put all of these pieces together from multiple puzzles.

"I know you must be confused but if I'm the evil one wouldn't I have killed you already?"

Dash doesn't answer.

Cyndaquil interrupts, "Are we going to kill him or not? He knows my secret now."

Penny answers, "No. You won't."

Sparky looks at Penny and asks, "Why are you so defensive for Dash?"

Penny looks away and doesn't answer.

Dash asks, "Did Penny mention my name before you all met me?"

Sparky answers, "Ya. Both her and Cyndaquil did. Come on Dash let's go to where it's safe. It's getting dark."

"I'm not afraid of the dark."

"Neither am I but, sometimes we need to play it safe. We can risk all our apples in a different basket."

Dash gets up and follows them to their hiding whole. Everyone was tired and almost went to sleep. Everyone except Dash and Penny. Dash leaves to clear those pieces in his head. Penny follows alongside him.

Dash breaks the silences, "So, even you are in this war."

Penny replies, "Physically but not mentally.

"Ya."

"Look. I know you don't want this war. You're done with this war. So am I though. We're trapped in this war but we need to get out before we change or get killed. We need to team up Dash. I'm tired of this war. Once we are rendered useless, they'll abandon us and forget about us. We'll be replaced and forgotten about. Now, that's not the way I want to live."

"Ya. We could just run away now."

"We need a better plan than that. I need you to stay close to me. We can slowly form a true plan and then will put it into action."

"Okay. You can count on me"

Penny hugs Dash closely, "I'm so glad you haven't change from this war. Please don't change. You're the only one I can trust."

Dash face turns a little pink, "Don't worry. Dash won't change."

They smile at each other and they walk back into the lightened place.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Sparks' loneliness

Sparks wakes up. He looks to the left of him. There are empty beds where Scouter and Cyndaquil were. He looks to the right of him. The same story but with Dash's bed only. He sits up. He checks the beds again hoping that some magical thing happened to bring them back. He felt some connection to them all. It was the strongest with Scouter and it was building strong with Dash. He checks the beds again. Finally he has the strength to get up and leave the miss bodies in the bed. Their bodies and their spirits may have left the area but he stills feels them. He remembers them. He usually doesn't react to the death of a teammate. This time however is different. This time there is no one else. It's just him. They were the only ones to understand what he was doing. Now he's alone. He walks over to the box that Dash had open yesterday. Empty. Just the shell of the cardboard. He sighs to himself.

"I never thought I would feel this way," Sparks thought, "This true loneliness. You never feel this way until you've lost everything. This is the second time this has happened to me. What I would do to just hear their voices again. I would be so happy."

Sparks pulls out his knifes. He stares deeply into them.

"My knifes. My darkness is all I've got now. This is truly being lonely. Just me. Myself. My own thoughts. Damn you Sparky. Why did you have to kill their innocent souls? Why? Why?" Sparks breaks down. His knifes fall to the ground. They fail to stab the hard light ground. "I don't know why I miss them so much. Were they different and I felt a stronger connection with them then I did with any other group I had? Maybe it's because I lost everything? Maybe not. I need to get over them. To forget them. Well, if they're still alive and I see them then I won't forget. Maybe they are alive. But why would they not be here yet? Did they get lost? Maybe they're spying on Sparky. Then again Sparky couldn't be spied on for more than a half an hour. She's too alert."

Sparks picks up his knifes. He goes on the path Dash used to go to the town except this visit is not a happy visit to order and plan something. This visit is to help walk away from the pain of his losses. He can feel it holding him down and in war; you can't let anything slow you down. He passes the same sign that couldn't be read by the undeveloped partner he had. He slowly walks up the endless stairs up into the tree that was still lit up like the night that he met Dash. After ordering the sitrus berry drink, he sits down in the same place he sat a few days ago. He stares into the drink, "Maybe this will be able to heal me. Maybe this drink will help me lose my feelings. Maybe... Maybe... Maybe." He looks at the worried looking Scraggy just staring at him talking to his drink. He looks away, "Maybe I can try to get another team going. It'll be hard because Sparky has poisoned the land with her ideas. I need to go to places where Sparky wouldn't be. I have to if I want to beat her and them. I may have the strength but she has the numbers."

Sparks drinks the ordered drink. He then hears a faint voice in his head, "Sparks? Sparks are you there? Can you hear me? I guess not. I guess I haven't gotten the ability to send messages. "

Sparks quiet surprised doesn't answer. He thinks to himself, "Who would be trying to contact me? Scouter! That was his dark magic!" He pauses. "But it wasn't his voice. How could his frequency of magic be played out to me but not have it be his voice? Could it be Sparky trying to mess with me? Trying to play with my feelings?" He hit the glass off the table and it shatters on the floor. He stares at it for a few minutes as the Scraggy is yelling at him but he isn't listening to him. No. That moment of the glass shattering reminded him that the shattered glass on the floor is him right now. There is nothing in it and it is useless and he is all over the place. Unlike the glass he needs to pull himself together. He decides to try to make contact with this faint voice. He tries and tries and tries but something is interfering him and he knows who. Sparky. Whoever is trying to make contact with him is near Sparky. He gets up. Walks out and sees if he can hopefully break the barrier that Sparky has put up against him. He keeps trying to make contact. Each time failing. He can hear himself each time. He gets frustrated. He looks around for a target but before he finds one the voice comes back, "Hello? Did I make contact?"

Sparks surprised, "Hello! Ya! You did!"

"Yes! I did it!"

"Who is this? Is this Scouter?"

"No. Scouter is dead."

"What? What happened?"

Minutes pass before the next reply, "Sorry, can't talk anymore Spa-," the message was suddenly ended.

"Hello? You still there?"

Hours passed before he decides that contact was over for now. He is excited. "I have someone!" Sparks thinks, "Someone else knows dark magic and they know me! But who is this thing. They might understand me! But who is he? It sounded like a guy but then again if you haven't mastered the messaging your voice sounds different in messaging than it sounds face-to-face. Let's not get too excited now. Let's see how this plays out."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Integrating Dash

Dash wakes up and sees that again he is the last one up again. He sits up and realizes that his team handkerchief of Sparks is across the room and he is wearing a white bow tie. Dash is a little confused. "How did this bow tie get on me?" He walks to the handkerchief and he takes off the bow tie and puts on the handkerchief. He walks outside.

"Good morning Dashy," Sparky said.

"Um... Good morning," Dash replies.

"How are you doing?" Sparky smiles.

"I'm doing alright. Did you put the bow tie on me?"

"Yep!"

"Why?"

"I thought you looked cute in a bow tie, but you don't need that to look cute. You're cute how you are."

"Oh."

"This all must be strange to you."

"Ya."

She hands Dash an apple, "You must be hungry. You ran a lot yesterday."

"May I remind you that I was running from you all?"

Sparky looks down, "I know but I couldn't let you go back to him to get beaten for losing Scouter and to get poisoned by his lies."

Dash chuckles, "You act just like your brother; you both say that the other is lying and then say your truth is right."

Sparky doesn't say anything.

"Where are the other two?"

"I sent them off to do something for me."

"And not me?"

"You would drag your feet."

"I guess..." Dash looks away.

"Plus I need to know that I can trust you and right now, I don't.

"Cyndaquil doesn't either and you both have a right to not trust me but I have a right to be trusted too."

Sparky pauses to think about what he just said, "Ya. You do have a right to be trusted and I will if you do what I say."

"If it's within reason I will but I'm not fighting against Sparks. I will also not help him or you with information of the other side."

Sparky surprised said, "So you don't believe what I said about him?"

"I'm not saying that, I just need to put pieces together before I am sure that I want to help your side or Sparks side. If you're telling the truth then you have nothing to worry about."

"Um... okay. I'll respect the boundaries you have put." She pauses, "If you think I'm pushing boundaries then tell me and I'll see what I can do."

"Okay."

"So... What do you think of me?"

"Well, you are nice but we just met and anyone can play nice for a few days."

"I know but please trust me."

Dash doesn't reply.

"Did I say something?"

"Well, you tell me to trust you yet, you don't trust me. So why should I trust someone who doesn't trust me?"

Sparky pauses to gather how to answer the question. She looks away and said, "Well... Sometimes we just need to take a risk. Every time we trust someone we take a risk that they will turn on us or leave us in the open for attack but we put trust in others because we need to. We need to put trust into someone so at least we can feel that much safer. Dash... We need to trust each other even if it isn't long term. You may run away tomorrow or next week or next year, but as of right now, we need to trust each other. You may not realize it but you trust me a little to not kill or hurt you right now. You may not think so but you do. You are not readying yourself to fight me and you're not attacking me to defend yourself. I also am trusting that you won't hurt me right now. So, we do have that little trust for each other. It was stupid of me to say that I don't trust you because obviously that's not entirely true. Come on Dashy we do trust each other even a little."

"Ya... I guess so. Sometimes when our un-trust is more powerful than our trust, we start to lose confidence in that pokémon or person and then we accuse them of doing something thus preventing us from trusting each other."

"Ya," Sparky smiles, "At least we can agree with that!"

Dash and Sparky look at each other for a moment in silence. Dash hands Sparky back her red apple because he wasn't hungry. Sparky eats the apple in front of Dash. She again offers the now half eaten apple to Dash and again Dash refused. Sparky finishes the apple. Dash sits on a fallen tree in the darkened soil. Sparky sits next to him with their hands almost touching.

Dash finally said looking off in the distance, "So you know what I think about you, what do you think of me?"

Sparky replies looking at Dash, "Well I do think you're nice. You are very perceptive too. You also seem to stay with the truth and you don't want to mess of the truth like Sparks and I have."

"That's pretty accurate, I think. Did Penny tell you who I was or something?"

"No. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk about you very much."

"I see," Dash said softly.

"I'm sorry Dash. Penny just doesn't seem interested in you. You're a great oshawott though. I like that mark on your face, it definitely makes you different. Plus you have an awesome personality."

Dash still softly talking, "Thanks."

"Dashy..." Sparky hugs him, "She might not see how cool and awesome you are but I do."

Dash hides the love hurt feelings for Penny from Sparky, "When are they coming back?"

"Who?"

"Cyndaquil and Penny."

"Oh! Fireback and Penny! They'll be back soon."

"Fireback?"

"That's Cyndaquil's actual name. He needed to hide it from Sparks and his team."

"Ah."

Penny and Fireback get back from their orders. Sparky immediately lets go off the hug. Penny said, "Okay, we got as many apples as we can hold."

"We would have got here sooner but Penny insisted that we get a fish for Dash."

Sparky looks at Dash and giggles, "So the otter likes fish. I could have guessed that."

Dash smiles at Sparky, "Yep. I love to eat fish." Dash looks at Penny, "Thanks Penny, very thoughtful of you."

Penny smiles, "Oh, You're welcome."

"So, we have half a day to burn what do you all want to do?" said Sparky.

"Well, Dash is new so we can let him choose." Fireback said.

Everyone looks at Dash wondering what he'll say. Dash shrugs. Sparky said, "We can build a campfire and roast some berries and Dash, you can cook your fish."

"Thanks but I eat fish raw. I don't alter it at all." Dash said, "But a campfire is a great idea."

Penny and Fireback nods.

Sparky orders Penny to go get some firewood and branches and Fireback to secure a place for the campfire. Dash was ordered to go with Sparky to get rocks to border the fire. They all go do their respective orders.

Dash starts speaking with Sparky, "So, it's just you and me again."

Sparky smiles, "Yep."

"So, you don't trust me to get the rocks myself?"

"No, I trust you. It's just that I want to get to know you better."

"Ah. Well there's not much to me."

"Come on now. Someone as cute as you has more to them than they show."

Dash's face turns a little pink, "Well, I don't know what to say about me."

"Can I ask you questions then?"

"Ask away."

"Well, where did you get your marking?"

"Personally, I wish that I knew the answer. I think I was born with it but I can't be too sure."

"Ah. So even the owner of the marking doesn't know. I think you look good with it."

"It has gotten me into more trouble than good."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters, I got kicked out of the oshawott clan that I was born into. Everyone in the clan, including my parents, abandoned me," Dash picks up a rock, "If I'm seen near the group than I'll get beat up and almost killed. Lots and lots of trainers want to capture me because I'm very different. Professors want to do lots of tests on me to see what caused my dash or marking as you call it. I'm curious too but I don't want to be pricked by lots of needles to figure out why."

"I see. Do you hate your marking?"

"Before I met Sparks and you I did, but now, I'm not so sure what I think about it anymore."

Sparky picks up a rock, "You should like it. It's a part of you and you should always like yourself. How can you like someone else when you don't like yourself?"

"You hide yourself from yourself."

Sparky hesitates from the quick answer, "Well that's not the way to live."

"It's a way to hide from the pain."

"You can't always hide from the pain and yourself. You'll be forced to face yourself and all the pain you've bottled up one day."

"I guess," Dash picks up another rock.

"What does pain you anyways?"

Dash remains silent. He picks up the heaviest rock of the bundle.

"Dashers, tell me. If you can't tell me than how can you tell yourself your pains?"

"Luck? Why do you care?"

"Two reasons: the first is that it's my personality to help others that are in pain and the second is that I don't want you to think of me the way Sparks portrays me but I want you to see me for who I truly am."

"You're going to cause pain for yourself if you're always helping others. You might also be hiding pain from yourself by worrying about others and not focusing on yourself. So maybe I should ask you, 'What pains you?'"

"If I tell you then you'll tell me right?"

"Right."

"Okay," Sparky takes a deep breath, "Sparks is someone who pains me right now but maybe it isn't all his fault. Our parents died at a young age. That's why we don't talk about them much. They died at an age that we remember that they exist but not long enough to spend any time that we truly remember. So we are both very hurt by it."

"What happened to them?"

"Deforestation."

"By humans?"

"Yep."

"Yet, you're defending them?"

"Yes and no. Yes I want to destroy the people that killed my parents but not innocent people who had nothing to do with it."

"But you're defending all humans."

"Not really, I'm just protecting the ones who I know is not part of the institution that kill our parents."

"I see."

"I wish I could see them right now. What pains you?"

Dash hesitates to answer. After a minute of picking up rocks he finally said, "The clan I was born into, as you know, kicked me out. I lost a good friend that I watch die when I could have done something to safe him."

"Scouter?"

"Yep."

"If you would have tried to save him you would have been killed too."

"I would have at least tried."

"Come on Dashy. I didn't want to kill him but I had to."

"I wanted to help him but I didn't."

"He ordered you to run."

"And?"

"And you followed orders."

"Maybe I should have disobeyed."

"No. Sometimes it might seem weird but you need to follow orders. When you follow orders, you become united with the group."

"Ya..."

"Come on. Let's go back to the group and make the campfire. That'll make you feel better."

Dash and Sparky walk back to Fireback who was waiting for them. He leads them to the site that they would build the fire. Dash decides that he would wait for Penny when she gets back with the sticks. Dash arrives at the area that they met and Penny pops out of the nearby tree. Dash asked, "How long were you there?"

Penny answers, "About five minutes."

"You were here when Sparky, Fireback, and I met up?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Oh, my own reasons."

Dash a little annoyed doesn't reply.

Penny smirks and giggles, "So Dashy eh?"

Dash face turns bright red, "Were you spying on Sparky and I?"

"No. I just happened to be in the same area."

"W-w-well," Dash starts to sweat, "She's calling me that by herself. I didn't ask her to call me that."

"D'awww. You two would be cute together."

"R-really?" Dash realizing what he said doesn't give Penny a chance to answer, "She said the same thing with you and me."

"Not surprising."

"But you're not interested in me."

"Who told you that?" Penny tilts her head.

"Sparky. It makes sense though. You always try to get away from me an-"

"That's what we call hard to get." Penny smiles and leaves to the campsite for she saw where it was when the other three met. Dash stands there for a minute thinking about what she just said and what she was hinting at.

Dash walks to the campsite. His one thought walking there was, "If Penny likes me and she saw Sparky flirting with me, why didn't she stop her?"

Dash arrives at the fire already started and all of them cooking their berries. Dash sits across from Penny and Sparky with the fire in between them. The flames were high and bright. With them cooking their berries, Dash pulls out the fish that Penny had given to him. Dash looks into the changing flames and the cooking berries. Sparky offers him a cooked berry but Dash refuses. Everyone starts to eat their respective foods.

"Dash, have you ever tried to cook your fish?" Sparky asked.

"No," Dash said, "Why alter something that is already good?"

"How can you tell if the normal one is better if you don't try the cooked one?"

"Why risk it?"

"Without risk, how can you live?"

"What? Aren't I'm alive right now?"

"True, but this is a small scale risk. Don't you get curious?"

"Well, ya."

"Why don't you take a piece of the fish you have less and cook it? That way if you don't like it, then you still have some fish that remains raw."

"I don't know."

"Come on Dash."

"Oh, fine," Dash rips off a piece of the fish and hands it to Sparky. Sparky stabs the meat with a stick and puts it in the fire.

After a few minutes the smell of cooking fish fills the air. "That smells good!" Fireback said. Dash doesn't reply.

Few more minutes pass and Sparky hands Dash the cooked piece of fish. After playing "hot potato" with himself, he puts the piece in his mouth. He chews it and gulps it.

"Well?" Sparky asks.

Dash replies with, "It's not bad but I like it raw better."

Sparky smiles and said, "Well aren't you glad you tried it?"

"I guess."

"You guess? You seem to be guessing a lot, Penny is this normal for Dash?"

"No," Penny said, "He's usually pretty sure, and he gives straight answers but him guessing is new. Dash, what's wrong?"

"What are you talking about?" Dash said in a higher pitch voice, "I'm perfectly fine."

"Dash, you're not yourself."

"Hm?"

"Is this because of what happened to Scouter?"

"Perhaps," Dash said folding his arms.

"Dashy," Sparky said, "Please stop living in the past. We can't change it. We all make mistakes Dash. Please forgive us. I never meant to hurt you. I know you still have that heart of yours that wants to forgive."

Penny interrupts, "And that heart scale."

Dash looks away, "How can I forgive someone else when I can't forgive myself?"

Sparky answers, "Dashy..."

"No!" Dash looks at his scalchop and then looks at Sparky, "Sparks may not have been perfect but he never killed my friends."

Sparky stands up, "Dash, calm down."

"I am calm!"

"Dashy, do you really believe that?"

Dash looks away, "N-no."

Penny walks over to him. "Come on Dash. Let's go to sleep. It has been an emotional day for you. Let's go."

"O-okay," tears start to form. He leaves before anyone sees the tears that he has shed. They all sit in silence trying to comprehend what just happened.

"Do you think Dash will be okay?" Sparky asked.

Fireback and Penny exchange looks at each other and they both shrug. "But we do need to help him deal with this pain. We can't lose the pain for him but we can at least guide him in the right direction." Penny said.

"Okay but we need to help him tomorrow he probably is sleeping in tears right now." Sparky said, "Sometimes the best thing to do is let it all out."

They all leave for bed. The fire burns for a little but slowly dies in the night. Eventually the warmth of the fire disappears.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Second Contact

Sparks this time sends the first message in the morning, "Hello?" He waits for a little but figures that Sparky must be nearby. He starts to question this voice. "Where is this voice? How does he or she know me? Who is he or she? Why did they contact me? Why me? I'm the last thing that everyone trusts. How did they know Scouter is dead? Why did their frequency seem so similar to Scouter? Is this a part of my imagination? Is this a part of my head? Could I be creating this voice in my head in an act to calm my own nerves? Am I? Could I? What if that were true? What if all this was just a part of my head? Then all this hope, excitement, and happiness, would be useless. Should I risk my feelings and possibly my sanity for this voice that may or may not? I really don't know."

He walks on the path that leads him to the town. No one was on the common path. It was very strange on a morning like this. He keeps walking towards the town. The smell of smoke starts to become noticeable, "Is someone doing a campfire?" Sparks asked himself. As he got closer to the town, the smell became too powerful to be a simple campfire and Sparks can see the towering smoke in the direction of the town. Sparks doesn't stop walking nor start running. He remains at the same pace. When the town finally comes to sight, he sees the burning buildings and the burning trees. Sparks is obviously surprised. "Who would do this?" He thinks to himself. He continues walking towards the town after a short pause. He looks and sees the pokèmons on the side crying from the possible loss of live; of their own life or other life. The towers of flames were as high tree line. Sparks finally stops walking when the heat of the changing flame becomes too great for Sparks. The flames and falling buildings were all that can be hear. If a little soul were crying for help, it would be hopeless.

"How do you like what we've done to the place?" Sparks looks around not seeing anyone. He then realizes that the voice came from his head.

"It could be better." Sparks replies in a mocking voice.

The voice laughs and said, "You really are a smart ass aren't you?"

"Depends on your perception."

"True, Sparky might think so but Scouter might not."

"H-how do you know them?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because it's awkward that you know them even though you have never met them."

"We've been following you for a while."

"What do you want from me?"

The voice laughs and fades away.

Sparks sends another message, "Answer me!"

The voice replies with, "You don't run the show. We do. When we need you we'll give you a call. You will regret it if you resist. We have more dark magic power than you can dream. You've only scratch the surface of what you can truly do. Join us and you can truly be powerful. You can beat Sparky for sure. We'll give you a call when we need you."

"I may be crazy but I won't burn an entire town. If this is what power does to others than count me out. When we have too much power we lose control. By your actions, you all seem evil."

"What do you think dark magic means? Flowers and puppies? No. It means that you're evil."

"No it doesn't! You're only evil if you have too much power or have a great want for something."

The voice doesn't reply.

"You know I'm right. I'm not evil."

The voice doesn't reply. Sparks was about to walk away when he was transferred in a world of darkness. Sparks falls and hits the ground. He gets up. He can barely see. "W-where am I?" Sparks asks.

"Your heart." the voice replies.

"My heart?"

"Yes. Your heart. This is what you carry what's true for you and what you like. Darkness."

"T-that's not true."

"Yes it is Sparks. Accept it."

"No!"

Screams of other voices suddenly start. Sparks falls to his knees and covers his ears. Even though the screams are loud and unbearable, the voice was still as clear as day, "You will be one with darkness. The sooner, the better for you."

"No!"

Suddenly a skeleton of a pachirsu becomes visible. It stands there staring. Sparks looks at it with the screams penetrating his ears.

A different voice enters in asking, "Sparks, Can you hear me?" This voice in his head shattered the dark world around Sparks. Sparks recognizes this voice. This voice was the same voice from yesterday. The other one was an impostor. It had the right voice but not the same frequency. Sparks was nervous but still curious to talk to the voice of yesterday.

"Ya. I hear you." Sparks answered. He looks around and realizes that it is nighttime. The town has been destroyed; there was no way of saving that. He makes his way home.

"Your voice sounds a little different. Is everything alright?"

"Well something interesting happened bu-"

"What happened?" The voice interrupted.

"Well, the town here burned down and I was contacted by another voice and I was transferred into a dark world but your voice for some reason shattered it, and I don't know why."

"Strange."

"Very strange."

"Would this be the same town you sent me to?"

Sparks pauses. "Umm... Dash? Is that you?"

"Yep."

"You're alive!?"

"I believe so."

"Where are you?"

"Well, I kind of sort of ended up with Sparky's group."

"You're betraying me?"

"No. I was running and they captured me. Scouter was killed by them."

"Oh."

"Ya."

"Sparky hasn't killed you?"

"No."

"What are you doing over there?"

"Not much. I'm not allowed to give information about the other group to the other side. I made that deal with Sparky."

"I see. So how did you learn how to contact me?"

"I didn't. It came naturally some time after Scouter shot that dark ball at me."

"He might have given you his dark magic. How are you handling it?"

"I'm handling it alright. I am changing slightly but I think that is because of Scouter's death."

"You were close to Scouter."

"Ya. I was."

"Remember Scouter for the good times Dash, but not for the fact that he is dead."

"That makes sense."

"Ya."

"I'm glad I can still contact to you. Thanks for cheering me up."

"Same here and you're welcome."

"Is Sparky always the flirty type? She has been flirting with me a little."

"No. Not really. She may have a crush on you."

"Is that awkward to you?"

"No."

"But she is your sister and I'm your friend."

"Well to many it would seem disturbing but to me no. She is my enemy. Yes. I know that but I still care for her. I had many chances to kill her but I didn't because I still care for her."

"If you care for her, then why do you fight her?"

"Our beliefs are against each others and beliefs can mess with other's minds. Sometimes they control us."

"Ah."

"So, do you like her?"

"Um... I don't know. I feel something but if it's love or just awkwardness or something else I'm not sure."

"I see. If you do love then you have my permission."

"W-w-well thanks, b-but I think I like Penny better.

"Penny?"

"Ya."

"Well, if you change your mind just remember that you do have permission."

"If I did date her wouldn't that mean I would have to fight you?"

"Not necessarily. You may be forced to work against me though."

"I won't go against you Sparks. Right now, we don't have to worry about it because I'm not interested in her."

"Yet."

"Well they're coming so bye."

"Bye."

Sparks lies down and goes to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Dash's Move

Sparky wakes up to find that Dash isn't in his bed. Penny and Fireback are still sleeping. Sparky quietly and quickly leave the beds. She walks outside. The sun has barely risen over the horizon. The shadows are long and the visibility level is very low because of the light fog. Sparky starts a little ball of light. She has the ball of light fly around as she follows it. She sees a figure and she moves the light near the figure. Sparky see that the figure is Dash and she sees Dash staring. Dash quickly puts something away and stares at the floating ball. Sparky sits next to him.

Dash asks, "What is that?" He points to the flying ball of light.

Sparky answers, "That's a ball of light."

"Well, where did it come from?"

"Me."

"How?"

"Light magic."

Dash looks at Sparky, "You know light magic?"

"Yep! I self-taught it to myself."

"Ah."

"Light magic doesn't affect others like dark magic."

"Because it's safer in the light. Some can't survive nor be comfortable in the dark."

"Then why learn something that prevents you from meeting others?"

"My dark magic is weak so it doesn't affect anyone. Plus your light magic may turn others away from you."

"Not really."

"You may not see it but it could be true."

"I guess but oh well, we can't please all."

"Ya."

"So what were you looking at?"

"Nothing."

"You were looking at something before I got here."

"My hands."

"Why would you be looking at your hands?"

"Thought I saw something on them."

"Why are you lying?"

"Because I don't trust you enough and I don't want you to get the wrong idea."

"What have I done to hurt you?"

"You killed Scouter."

"You knew once you entered this war that there would be death and pain. You had the chance to leave but you didn't. Dash, you can't change the past."

"You're right. I can't change the past and I should be happy for the time I had with him. I being in this hole isn't going to bring him back."

"Ya. We only have the future to look forward to."

"Let's not worry about the future. The future is too uncertain and if we plan for the future and live with our future plans, we'll miss so much."

"That's pretty deep."

"Yep."

"Do you still hate me?"

"Well, I really don't know anymore."

"Come on Dash; you should know if you hate me or not. It's your heart."

"Is it really my heart or just a toy everyone plays with?"

"Who is playing with your heart?"

"You and Penny."

"How am I'm playing with your heart?"

Dash looks at her and starts to talk in an annoyed voice, "Either you're blinded by the light you represent, or you're just completely stupid not to see. I know you like me. You make that obvious. I'm not interested in you. Those who believe in 'love at first sight' are stupid. Come on now! How can you like me in the short time we know each other? Those who follow 'love at first sight' are in for a short relationship or are in a very long unhappy relationship. How do you like me when you really don't know me?" Sparky starts to cry but Dash ignores the tears and continues, "Are you really that desperate? So desperate that you are willing to ask any guy that joins the group? Are you?"

Sparky's tears flow down her face. The tears were so thick that Dash could almost see his reflection in them. Dash still stares at her with a mad look but those tears were very powerful to one's feeling. Slowly other feelings of Dash take over. Dash was no longer angry or annoyed. He slowly gets up, sneaks another look at the broken down Sparky and walks away. Sparky sits there still crying when Fireback walks out. Sparky immediately tries to stop the flow of tears but the rapids were too strong to stop.

Fireback looks at her, "Are you crying? What happened?"

Sparky doesn't answer.

"Tell me Sparky. How can I help you if I don't know what happened?"

"You can't repair what happened."

"Then let me help what I can repair."

"How can you repair what can't be repaired?"

"Who said I was going to repair the unrepairable? I'm going to repair what can be repaired?"

"What can be repaired?"

"Your feelings."

"No, you can't."

"Feelings are only temporary, so they can always be repaired."

Penny walks to Sparky still crying. She sees that Fireback is still comforting Sparky. Both Penny and Sparky make eye contact and from that little contact, Penny had a good idea what had happened. She walks away into the forest. Dash is not the best at covering his trails. She looks at the ground to see an oshawott footprint here and there. She looks at the freshly broken branches. She stands still and listens. There are movements in the trees, which is normal for an active forest but Dash wouldn't be in the trees. There are movements all around her but there is one thing she is listening for. Water. She knows that if she wanted to find Dash, he'll most likely be at the water. She stands still, silences her breathing, and listens deeply. She hears that little trickle of water running from the huge river nearby. She walks through the tree brush to get to the river and she searches around. "Dash is usually easy to predict." Penny thought to herself after a few minutes of searching. She goes back the footprints she saw earlier and saw that they weren't going to the river this time. She follows them but they ended in the grass. She climbs the nearest tree. Penny sees the little blue fur ball in the distance on a fallen tree. Penny climbs down and walks in the direction of the blue fur ball. She finally sees that it is Dash. Dash is sitting at the log facing away from Penny looking at his heart scale. Penny quietly walks towards Dash and sits next to him. Dash doesn't hide his heart scale this time. A few minutes past without anything said. Penny finally said, "Looking at your heart scale eh?"

"Yep," Dash answered not looking up from his heart scale.

"Who do you see in there?"

"Where?"

"The heart scale."

"No one."

"Whatever happened to you seeing me in there?"

"My heart changed."

Penny stares at the heart scale, "It looks the same to me."

"To the untrained one."

"What's different about it?"

"It's damaged from being played with."

"Well, you let them play with your heart."

"Funny hearing that from you."

"What do you mean?"

Dash looks up from his heart scale, "Because, just like Sparky, you also played with my heart."

"How?"

"You're just as blind as that sponge aren't you?"

"Dash, feelings are hard to understand. Why do we feel? Why do we have passion?"

Dash looks at Penny, "I don't know."

"If we didn't feel, we wouldn't be alive. No feelings mean no happiness. No pain. No love. No hate. Without feelings, it's pointless to live. One that cannot feel is already dead." Penny grabs Dash's heart scale and Dash gives it up without resisting, "We need to feel to survive. Even pain, sadness, and hate all have a purpose. They may be negative feelings but they improve us. They show us who we are and what we want to be. They make our spirits stronger." Penny looks at the heart scale, "Now love. Well love is a different feeling altogether. Those who put happiness and love in the same sentence don't understand love. Love, well, is happiness, sadness, and everything in between. Love is the only feeling that involves two. Not one, but two. Many use the word 'love' instead of using the word 'like'. You can like someone and that other one may not like you back. Love is two ways and only two ways. If you do like multiple pokémon and treat them all like you 'love' them, then you better be ready to face a very heavy consequence usually ending in losing all the feelings you had. Dash, I'll be honest with you, I did play with your feelings but not because I hated you but because I didn't understand what love was and with me not understanding this new feeling, I pushed away with fear. I know it sounds stupid to be afraid of love but I was. The way I was able to get around that feeling was to play with your feelings and I am terribly sorry and I do regret it. These may seem like just word but they do come from my heart." Penny looks into the heart scale. She tries to hand it back to Dash but Dash doesn't take it. "Dash, don't you want your heart scale?"

Dash sits there a few minutes. Penny can see that Dash is really thinking a lot and really hard and she doesn't want to interrupt his thinking so she reminds silent. Tears form in Dash's eyes but Penny can tell that these tears were different from the normal ones. Still they were mixed with the normal tears though. Penny wipes those mixed tears. Dash looks at Penny. Penny, still holding Dash's heart scale, tries to hand Dash his heart scale back but again he refuses. Finally Dash replies with, "No, I don't want my heart scale."

"Why not?"

"Because you took my heart." Dash smiles, "And I want you to have it."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Forced Involvement

Dash wakes up. Dash and Penny slept in a secret hiding hole that they used for meetings for their new alliance. Dash sits up and looks at the sleeping pretty snivy lying next to him. Dash never had this feeling before. The feeling of completeness. Scouter's death wasn't his main focus anymore. Dash finally saw that he did change a little but Penny brought him back to himself. Penny's eyes open up. Dash smiles at her. Penny sits up rubs her eyes and asks, "Up already?"

"Yep."

"You always up this early?"

"No. You didn't wake up much later than me."

"Ah."

"Do you want me to get you some food?"

"If you want. I'll be fully awake in a minute."

"I'll get it. It's the least I can do for you." Dash leaves the hole.

Penny sits there and says to herself, "Well he's excited. I'm glad that he's happy. If he's happy then I'm happy." Penny lays back down, "That was a long night."

Dash happily walks into the forest humming a tune he had picked up from the oshawott clan he was kicked out of. The gray clouds in the sky blanketed the sky. The sun couldn't be seen but everyone could tell that it was morning even without the direct sunlight. The wind was a slight cool breeze. Dash's fur moved with the wind. Dash enjoyed the cool breeze. "It's days like these that makes me proud to be wild or as I would be called by those developers, undeveloped." Dash thought, "They don't know what they're missing hiding in their houses." The air had lots of movement yet it remind ominously silent. Dash sniffs the air. A drop of rain lands on Dash's nose. This didn't worry the oshawott even when the rain picked up speed and grew in numbers. Dash remembers when he first experienced the rain.

He was just a little tiny oshawott, maybe not even two months old (his scalchop hadn't fully grown yet), and he was still in the oshawott clan. The oshawott clan wasn't sure what to do with him yet so he safe in the clan until they could decide and Dash's innocence prevented him from seeing the prolong exile. He was playing alone, like usual, and the clouds were just as gray but they didn't blanket the sky. Dash was playing under a tree where he knew he wouldn't be teased for his difference. It started to rain when Dash was tired and he was going to go back to the nest of his parents. Dash was scared. "What is this?" Dash thought. He sees that none of the other oshawotts were showing any fear to these big drops of water. Dash puts out his arm out of the safety of the tree branches over him. A drop of the rain hits Dash's hand. Dash quickly pulls his hand back into the safe area. He quickly realizes that it didn't hurt him. He slowly puts his hand out again. He repeated this process many times until he had gained enough confidence. He steps out of the tree branches safety and his body gets bombarded by the tear drops of the clouds. He wasn't getting hurt by the water. He felt the water bouncing off his oily fur and running down his body. It was very interesting for the little oshawott but atlas his tiredness takes over and he finally makes his way to the nest already half asleep.

Those were the days for Dash. Everyday a new discovery; a new adventure; a new learning experience. Dash was too innocent and ignorant to care about what will happen and what had happen just like the others. Being forced out of the clan definitely changed him. He lost everything except for his heart scale and his scalchop. He tried to get into the clan the next few days but each time being forced out again. He had to finally grow up and leave the clan. That part wasn't so good but everything before that was good Dash.

He sniffs the air again. He finally gets the smell of some berries. The clouds start to pour its familiar substance. Dash stands in the rain for a little. The wind is still blowing its cool breeze and everything seems alright. He walks towards the scent of the berries. He finds them in a clearing, on a white plate, in the middle of an opening of the trees. Almost like they were purposely set there but are they for him to grab?

Dash is hungry. "Those berries look so good. Penny would love them." Dash walks out of the safe bush to get to the berries. He picks them up one by one making sure to check around him in between picking up the berries. When he can't hold any more he turns around and sees a skunktank staring at him as a target. Dash backs up keeping his eyes in the skunktank and he backs in a scrafty. Dash walks backwards at the angle away from them. They both walk together keeping the same distance on Dash both keeping their eyes on Dash. Dash drops the many colorful fruit. They walk over the berries. The skunktank fires a dark shadow ball at Dash but Dash quickly reflects it away with his scalchop. "What do you want from me?" Dash yells. Neither one of them answer. Scrafty then shoots a dark magic line at Dash that was moving very fast but to Dash everything was moving so slow. Dash moves to blocks the dark magic but the attack move through his scalchop then through his chest. Dash holds the place where he was hit and he sees red blood coming out of the wound. Dash drops his scalchop and falls to the ground.

"Let's finish this mission," said the scrafty and the skunktank fires another shadow ball at the helpless Dash. Dash closes his eyes for his final breath. Dash didn't feel the impact of the shadow ball he opens his eyes and sees a dewott with his scalchops engulfed in dark magic and a servine standing ready next to the dewott. Skunktank laughs and said, "You can have him, he's already good as gone." They warp away.

The dewott and servine immediately turn to Dash. Dash vision is bleary as his breathing starts to feel limited. The dewott goes to Dash, "Dash stay with me!" the dewott said as he turns Dash over and holds his wound. Dewott looks at servine, "Go get Penny. If he dies, I'd rather have her be there. I'll be back at you know where."

Servine nods, picks up Dash's scalchop and runs off.

Dewott carefully drags Dash's motionless body away from the attack. Dash goes in and out of consciousness. Even when he is conscious he can't really move. The dewott kept repeating the same thing over and over again, "Just stay with me Dash. Just stay me." Dash never answered to any part of the broken record player. The dewott finally makes it to the place and Dash is placed in a bed. He lays there motionless. Dewott looks at the wound. The shot from the dark magic left a hole in Dash's body that goes all the way through. Dash lays there, not moving, not making a sound and not feeling. Dewott sits Dash's limped body up and holds him there while he wraps some bandages around his chest over his wounds. "Dash, can you hear me?" Dash doesn't answer. Dewott slowly lays his body back down. "I hope you're alive." Dash doesn't answer. Dewott pours a few drops of water in Dash's mouth. "I don't like your chances Dash. You took a pretty hard hit from that shot. Am I talking to myself?" Servine and Penny walk in. Penny sees the broken oshawott on the bed. Servine walks to dewott and they exchange a few whispers. Penny slowly walks to Dash's side as tears start to form in her eyes. Penny kneels next to Dash and she cries on his wounds. Dewott and servine watches Penny's tears roll off her face and get absorbed by the bandages. Dewott, after a few minutes, picks Penny off of Dash and said, "Penny, let's give his wounds some air." Penny stands up still watching for any movement on Dash. Dash doesn't move.

"Is he still alive?" Penny asked.

Servine and dewott look at each other. Servine finally said, "We're not sure."

"We think he is though." dewott added.

"How can you tell?" Penny asked.

"His dark magic hasn't been released." dewott answered.

"Released?"

"When a pokémon that has dark magic dies, all the magic is released at once and it gets absorbed by everything around it. Of course most of the magic is lost in the trees so there is no real advantage to kill one to get more powerful. However if Dash's dark magic is weak, we might not see that process because it's so little."

"Oh." Penny turns to Dash walks to him. "I think you should have this back." She puts the heart scale on Dash's chest.

"Keep it Penny."

Penny walks away from Dash's body.

"Why can't she hear me? I'm trying to talk to you. Are you all ignoring me? Am I dead? Why can't I speak? Why can't I move? I can hear what you're all are saying..." Dash's thoughts go back into darkness again. "Is this a dream?"

"No." A voice from behind Dash is heard, "We're in your conscious."

Dash turns around and sees Scouter, "Y-y-you died but if I see you then am I dead?"

"Not yet."

"Then how are you here in my conscious?"

"Remember that dark ball I fired at you?"

"Ya."

"Well that was a dark magic ball. I gave you my dark magic and since you haven't learned how to control the dark magic I gave you, I have to control it so you don't lose it therefore, I am here."

"So you're alive?"

Scouter laughs, "No, I'm dead"

"Why did you laugh?"

"If I didn't laugh then you would have felt sorry, then you would have felt sorry for me but the fact is, being dead isn't all bad."

"Ah. Do you miss your body?"

"Of course I do but it's fun to see where you go."

"Wait! You can see where I go?"

Scouter laughs, "Yep. With you having little control my dark magic, I'm pretty much can see what you do."

"That's kind of disturbing. Can you hear my thoughts?"

"No. I can't. You controlled enough of the dark magic to prevent me from doing that."

"Oh. Sorry."

Scouter smiles, "It's all good. I know you need it more than me."

"So, you don't mind disappearing forever?"

"Nope. My soul will find a new body, a new life, and I'll forget this life but hopefully I'll be able to avoid this war."

"Me too."

Penny looks at dewott and servine with anger and revenge seeking, "Who did this to him?"

Again, dewott and servine exchanges looks, "Let's talk about it when we know Dash's fate." Said the servine, "We need to focus on him right now. We can get our revenge later."

Scouter looks at Dash, "No you aren't going to die because you've given up and you want to be free. If you're going to die today, you're going to die giving it all you've got."

"Why do you care?"

"Because you got your whole life to die and I know you can live this life one happy oshawott especially with your Penny."

Penny folds her arms, "I want to know! I need to help Dash."

Servine replies with, "How are you going to help him by getting yourself killed by getting revenge?"

Penny tears up again, "I don't know!"

Scouter looks at Dash, "Look how much she cares about you. She is willing to risk her life to get some revenge for you. Do you really want to leave that?"

Dash looks away, "No. Scouter, I need to survive."

"I know Dash but I can't help you with this fight; you have to fight through this. You can't hide the pain. You'll feel once this darkness poison wears off."

"Darkness poison?"

"When Scrafty attacked you, he got you with some of the darkness poison. This is a very deadly poison. It'll put you in a numb state and causes you to be thrown into this conscious room. It gives you the feeling of death. It causes the poisoned to give up thus killing them. Plus if your body can't fight it, and then you'll remain in this state till you're dead from dehydration. Most can't fight off this poison because they have never experienced the dark magic. You on the other hand, you have a chance. You do have experience with dark magic. I don't think they realize it because if they did, they would have fought that dewott and servine. Plus, they are the one giving you drops of water so they are extending your life in this body and they also stopped the bleeding but if your body doesn't fight off this poison you'll die anyways."

"So I need to wake up in order to live."

"Pretty much."

Penny turns to Dash's body still lying there and moving. "Who are you two anyway?"

"We're dewott and servine."

"You're not going to tell me now are you?"

Both servine and dewott shake their heads no.

Dash looks at Scouter, "So how long till I'm free?"

"Could be a few minutes; could be a few months."

"A few months? I will be dead by that time."

"Ya, but the thing is we can't know. It depends on your body's strength and even if you survive the poison, you might go into shock from the pain because the pain will be sudden, plus you still might die from your injuries. You took a pretty bad blow from that attack. You tried to block it and it would have worked with any other attack but this is dark magic. The same thing would have happened with light magic too but with different side effects. The attack went through your scalchop. The only way you can block that attack with your scalchop is to engulf your shell in dark magic but that is a high level magic and you're definitely are not going to learn it right now."

"Oh. So even if I wake up, I could still die."

"Yep."

There is a loud cracking sound. Both Dash and Scouter look up. "Ah, so the poison is breaking apart. This is where we say good bye my friend."

"Will I ever see you again?"

Scouter looks away, "I doubt it. Magic can't bring you back here and even if you could that magic would be very powerful and you would have learned how to control my magic thus making it where I don't control the magic and my soul will be free so I won't be here. Unless you get near death and not improve on your dark magic, which I believe you will improve, then you'll see me again. Otherwise we won't see each other again. May be in the next life we will. Some believe that true friends will re-meet each other in each life."

"Well if that's true, I'll see you in the next life, if not, well good bye. You were a great friend and I won't forget you."

"Dash, one more thing, keep improving on your magic. Don't stop learning because of me."

"Okay. I will. Bye friend."

"Bye friend."

The dark world slowly gets contaminated with light. Scouter fades away with the light. Dash eyes slowly open. The first thing Dash notices is the sharpest pain that he has ever felt in his life. Dash although sees everything, he can't get through this pain to truly see. This pain that Dash is feeling; this is true pain. Pain you can't mask. Pain you can't run from. Pain that you can't avoid. Dash is starting to think dying would be the easy way out. He wishes that he could just scream, but it would be more painful to scream and for some reason he can't make a sound. "Please someone notice that I'm here now. Alive. At least for now." Dash thought. He looks down without moving his head. He sees his heart scale on his chest. He looks around and sees a dewott, a servine, and Penny all talking. About what Dash is not sure. Dash looks back at the heart scale. His hand was on the heart scale, probably put there by Penny. Dash uses all of his strength and all of his pain resistance to move his fingers. Slowly and painfully slides the heart scale. The three don't notice the little but hard movements the oshawott is making. Dash gives the heart scale a final little push and the heart scale travels to the ground. Penny, dewott, and servine all look in the direction of Dash. Dash really wishes he could flail his arms around and do a dance to show that he's awake. Dash knows that they commented on it but the pain has affected his hearing too. Penny walks over to the heart scale, picks it up, and sighs. Dash is really hoping that she sees that he is awake because he couldn't endure that level of pain again if she puts his heart scale in the same place. She puts the heart scale back into Dash's hand back onto his chest. She looks at Dash's open eyes. She turns away and leaves back to talk to dewott and servine, but half way back she turns around and walks back to Dash. She double checks Dash and sees that she wasn't seeing things that his eyes are open. She excitedly hugs him. That was the most loving but most painful hug Dash has received so far. Dash still doesn't have control of his body yet. How much he wishes he could hug her back.

Dewott and servine look at Penny. Penny turns to them and says, "He's finally awake!"

Dewott and servine quickly walk over to see the awakened oshawott.

"Dash, how are you feeling?" Dewott asks. Everyone turns to the oshawott. Dash doesn't answer. "Can you hear me?" Dash tries to nod but it was too painful. Dash just lays there. He examines everyone on the room with his eyes. "I may not feel, talk, or smell but at least I can see and somewhat hear." Dash thought. Dash sees the bandages this time wrapped around his injuries.

"I don't think he can hear anymore." dewott concluded.

"He just woke up; his mind must still be blurry." Servine said.

"You both don't realize how wrong you both are." Dash thought jokingly.

"Dash, these last four days have been so hard for me and I was so worried. Every day I woke up not sure if you were alive or if you were going to survive. If I lost you, I'm not sure what I'd do. I'm so glad that dewott and servine found you. They're the ones that saved your life-" Penny said

"Scouter saved my life too." Dash thought during Penny talking.

"-without them. I wouldn't have known you were in danger. I'm so happy that you are awake to hear this. Even though you're not out of danger of dying and you have a long road to recovery, you are a fighter and you have a strong soul and heart to be able to recover from this."

Again everyone looks at him. Dash might as well be dancing in the room and even then he wouldn't have gotten such a big audience. Dash closes his eyes to try to focus his strength and ignore the new pain that he would feel. Dash slowly smiles a little. Not a lot but for Dash's current state it is as hard as Dash trying to climb a tree in his healthy state. Dash opens his eyes and his smile fades. Penny smiles and says, "Dewott, you're hypothesizes is wrong. He can hear."

"At least some one isn't throwing false conclusions out about me without some evidence." Dash thought.

Dewott looks at Dash, "How can you tell?"

"Sometimes you just know, plus he smiled."

"He could have smiled just because he saw that we were watching him."

Penny folds her arms, "Well, we'll see who's right when he can talk again."

"You're already assuming that he'll talk again?"

"Yep. He may be weakened physically but the mental battle is the one he has to fight the most. He is very strong mentally. If he would have given up, then he would have been dead already. He could have given up but he didn't." Penny turns to Dash, "That's why I love him. Even when times are tough; even when it all seems hopeless he keeps fighting until the very end. Sometimes, and this time counts, it would be easier to give up. To lay on the ground and rot. Dash is different. Dash won't give up on anything. He didn't give up on me," Penny kisses Dash's forehead, "even when I shooed him away. He doesn't give up and I won't give up on him. Even when he has given up. I still won't!"

Dash would jump up and hug her and cry if he could. He just hopes that Penny realizes one day that he fought so hard partly because of her. No one living thing could fight so hard without someone to fight for and to fight with.

Dewott doesn't reply. Servine answers with, "I'm glad that you have such a connection to him. Maybe he is fighting because of you."

"Right!" Dash thought. He enjoyed hearing servine and Penny talking. The dewott, not so much. "Where would I be without you Penny?"

Dewott looks at Dash, "You thirsty buddy?"

Dash didn't really think about it much but ya he was very thirsty. Throat was pretty dry too.

Dewott sits Dash up slowly. No matter how little or how slowly they moved Dash, the pain was unbearable. Dash wonders how he didn't go into shock from the pain of the movement itself but he didn't. Penny had pointed something of Dash that he didn't realize about himself. He was a fighter. He didn't go into shock. Dewott puts a few big drops of water in Dash's mouth. Dash really hates being dependent on someone else for his life. "Am I really worth all this trouble?" Dash thought. Dewott slowly lays Dash down in the familiar bed. Dash slowly falls asleep.

Penny smiles and says, "I'm going to sleep a little better now that we know he has improved a little. These last few nights have been long sleepless nights."

Servine said, "Okay. Goodnight Dash. Goodnight Penny." Servine signals the dewott to follow her outside. Dewott nods and goes outside with the servine following. They walk away so that they can keep a watch on the area but not be heard by Penny or Dash. Servine speaks again, "We need to tell them."

Dewott answers, "Agreed, but we can't tell them now."

"I think we should tomorrow."

"If they ask we'll tell them but we should tell them when Dash is in better condition. We shouldn't confuse them nor give them one more thing to worry about."

"We should tell them."

"We can tell them later."

"No. We need to tell them ASAP."

"Maybe should tell them slowly."

"That's a good idea. Try not to confuse them by giving everything up front. What should we tell them first?"

"I'm not sure."

"How about we tell them who we are since Penny already asked about that."

"Okay."

They both walk back into the house and sneak their way into their beds and go to sleep.

"My body may be broken but my soul is strong. That what Scouter has taught me. He has taught me so much. More than anyone ever could. You probably know more about life than anyone I have and will meet in my life. He surprised me. How can someone teach me so much in so little time? Thank you Scouter. Thank you. I wish I could repay all that you have taught me." Dash goes falls back into deep sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Dewott and Servine

Penny is the first to wake up. She looks a Dash's numb sleeping body. She replays what dewott had told her time and time again to do before Dash is awake, "Wake up; check on Dash; if awake tell dewott and servine; if not and you're the first one awake, go and get some water; and blah blah blah. He is no longer unconscious! I don't need to follow this routine." Penny thought, "But it was for Dash and I will do anything for Dash. He hasn't eaten since he was unconscious. He must be hungry but he can't chew nor can I fish. I guess I need to get some soft berries for him." Penny leaves the nest.

The sun had barely broke the horizon. The few warm rays from the sun were very comforting. A lot of complicated events had been happening for the past few days and for something so simple and so warming to touch Penny, just felt so nice. She stays in the open so the sun could keep warming her as she walks. With no cloud in sight to prevent the warming rays, this seems like it's going to be a relaxing day by the weather's point of view. Penny passes by an apple tree. Which reminds her of Sparky. "I wonder how she is doing. If she is doing okay? Dash and I did leave suddenly and neither of us gave any indication of leaving. We would have came back but we got caught in the dark and it can be quiet dangerous in the dark but maybe in the very end, it would have been better to risk the night. Dash might not have been in the same area as the trap. Of course, the attack was planned and not very random, so they would have attacked him sometime or another but maybe I would have been there. Maybe he wouldn't be in such of bad of shape."

Penny hears a sound behind her. She turns around. There was no one. She hears the sound behind her again. She turns around again but this time she sees a fast moving thing moving from the left side of the opening to the right. She gets ready with leaf blades in her hands. She gets pushed from behind into a tree and she is held there but in the mist of the struggle, Penny turns around and sees her attacker that is holding her against the tree. It was a pachirsu with a knife to her neck. "Could this be Sparks?" Penny thought.

"What did you do with Dash?" the pachirsu said.

"Are you Sparks?" Penny said calmly.

"Ya. Now where is Dash?"

Penny lightly moves the knife away from her neck with her finger, "No need to get hostile, I'll tell what happened to him and I'll even take you to him. I have nothing against you. Just put the knife away so we can walk and talk civilized."

Sparks kind of surprised that Penny isn't scared by the knifes says, "Okay." Sparks puts the knifes away and releases Penny.

Penny starts walking the same direction, "I knew you weren't going to kill me."

"How did you know?"

"From what I've heard, you seem like a pretty smart guy and you know you need me to get to Dash."

"Ya. I do. Are you really going to take me to him?"

"Yes but first I'm getting some berries for him."

"hmm... okay but right after we get the berries we go straight to him."

"Fine by me. I wasn't planning anything after that anyways."

"Okay but don't try anything."

"You really have trust issues don't you?"

"I have to, especially someone who is on Sparky's side."

"Well don't worry. I'm here on my own free will and I'm kind of done with Sparky. Now I'm not going against her but I don't want to work with her either. Plus Dash is seriously injured an-"

"What happened to Dash?" Sparks interrupted.

Penny walks over to a bunches of berries in the bush. She picks up a berry. She squeezes it in her hands and it releases the berry juice easily. She picks a few. She hands a few to Sparks and picks a few more. She walks the other direction back to the nest. She finally asks, "What did you say?"

"What happened to Dash?"

Penny looks down, "Please understand that I never want to hurt him and that I would never hurt him. He was going to get some berries for me and he was attacked by a skunktank and a scrafty. He was saved by a dewott and a servine. Servine was the one to tell me all this information."

"So you weren't there?"

"Nope, wish I was though."

"You've really grown close to Dash haven't you?"

"Ya."

"He talked about you."

"Awww."

"We may just know each other and you may work with my sister but you seem like a nice girl and if Dash can trust then I think I can trust you."

"Meh. Some say I'm nice. Some say I'm mean."

"Isn't that true with all of us?"

"Yep. Well I see the nest. He'll be in there. Please don't touch him. He is in a lot of pain."

Penny walks in with Sparks. Dewott and servine stop Sparks from seeing Dash. Penny looks at them and says, "He's okay." She pushes her way in between dewott's and servine's wall with Sparks following. Servine and dewott looks at each other with a worried look. Sparks walks with Penny to Dash still laying down in the bed watching the ceiling. Dash looks at Penny then Sparks. Sparks smiles and says, "Long time no hear."

Dash doesn't answer. "When you weren't contacting me anymore I was beginning to think that you were dead or you were planning something with Sparky."

"He can't talk." Penny said, "He also can't move very well."

"Ah. So darkness poison has control of his body right now."

"Darkness poison?" Penny asked.

"Darkness poison is very deadly. You get it when you have too much darkness in your body to control. You can force darkness on someone by using dark magic. You can light poison too but with light magic instead. It will shut down sight, feeling, hearing, talking, smelling, and it will even make you unconscious. It is very hard to fight. Your body has to reject the excess dark or light magic and it's very difficult for the body to do. If you never experienced dark or light magic, you can't recover. Even if you do know one of them, you still probably won't recover. Dash is very lucky to wake up and be able to hear. He already beat the odds by waking up and hearing."

"Okay." Penny turns to the dewott and servine, "Why didn't you tell me about this darkness poison?"

Dewott and servine hesitate. They both exchange looks at each other and servine finally said, "Well um you see um, you didn't ask."

"We've been talking about Dash's condition for many days and you never mentioned anything about it and Sparks was here for a few minutes and he already explained it to me."

Dewott and Servine look at each other. After they exchange a few whispers in front of the impatient Penny and dewott finally said, "I think it's time to tell you guys who we are."

Penny folds her arms. Dash painfully and slowly turns his head towards everyone. Sparks turns towards dewott and servine.

Servine starts to speak, "Well you remember that skunktank and scrafty that attacked Dash? Well, you see, they are our enemies. They attacked Dash as a way to weaken us. If Dash dies, our enemy wins. Sparks, I know you are in this war with Sparky but this is more dangerous then your little family dispute."

Sparks looks at the Servine with a curious look, "How do you know about Sparky and how do you know about the war Sparky and I are in?"

Servine folds her arms, "You haven't figured it out yet?" She walks over to Penny, "I'm you. I'm Penny."

Dewott walks over to Dash, "And I'm you. I'm Dash."

"Just keep calling us dewott and servine. Our cover can't be blown."

Dash, Sparks, and Penny all are in shock. Penny unfolds her arms, "B-b-but how?"

Servine replies with, "We're from the future. The skunktank and the scrafty are also from the future. They tried to cripple us by killing Dash."

"You're just toying us." Sparks said, "The dewott doesn't have Dash's blue line on his face."

Dash really wanted to say something too but right now he's trapped in thoughts, "Maybe I lose the blue dash when I evolve."

Servine walks over to dewott, "It's still there." Servine rubs dewotts cheek and reviles a blue line. "Nothing a little make-up can't cover up."

Sparks has nothing else to say. Dash, Penny, and Sparks stay there puzzled. Servine carefully reapplies the make-up on dewott's cheek to cover the line.

Dewott finally said, "Look, it wasn't our idea to come back here, when we got wind that they were going to attack Dash we knew that we needed to chase them and protect Dash."

Sparks looks at Dash and said, "Because if Dash died you wouldn't exist anymore?"

"No. That's the most told and wrong myth. It's very common. What really happens is all the things I did after my past dies and will not happen and I can't alter anything. I also can't go farther in the past to prevent the event from happening. You are forced to follow the rules of time and you can't even change anything in the time that you're in. So I will exist only to myself but not to anyone else."

Dash looks at dewott. "That's why they saved me!" Dash thought. Dash really wants to speak. He trying hard to say a word. Sparks looks at Dash realizing that he is fighting the darkness poison to do something. Penny, dewott, and servine are too distracted by the conversation to notice Dash's struggle even though they remain silent in order to gather thoughts. Sparks stands there wishing he could help. Dash fights this seemingly impenetrable dark wall. He slams his body into the wall over and over into the wall just to speak. He now know what he controls and this wall isn't one of them. Dash hits the wall, gets up, and tries again. This wall is tiring him out though. This mental fight is the first major battle Dash has experienced. Sure fighting against two decisions are hard but this is not a mental battle with himself but with something that he has never faced before nor seen before. After many more hits into this unbroken wall, he gets up very slowly and he decides one more time. He backs up. "All or nothing" He runs and slams his body into the wall. He looks up. The wall still stands. He looks down. "Have I been defeated? Can I ever talk again?" He stands up, tired and weak. He looks at the wall again. This time he notices a small little crack. He shakes his head. Looks at it again. "It's definitely there." He puts his hand on his belly. He looks down. "No scalchop..." He remembers that servine took it, probably to show Penny that he was seriously injured. So in this battle, he doesn't have it. He looks behind him and sees his heart scale. "Penny put this on my chest to give it back." He grabs the heart scale. He looks at the crack in the wall. He looks back at the heart scale. He puts part of the heart scale in the crack. He slides the heart scale as far left as it goes then as far right as it goes. Dash hears some of the loose pieces hitting the ground. "This is working!" Finally when he finished damaging the wall by means of the heart scale Dash cleans the heart scale with his spit and hand and puts it away. He looks through the crack. He can't see much on the other side. With his tired body he slowly drags himself away from the wall for another attack on it. He runs but this time he puts everything he has left into the attack including the heart scale. He rams into the crack. He falls backwards and rubs his shoulder. He looks at the crack again the crack has grown. He puts his arm through the grown crack and starts to move it around in the crack getting all the loose debris. The wall cracks even more. Dash hears the wall creaking. Dash taps the wall and the glass wall shatters into many big pieces. Dash watches as the pieces fall towards him but he's too tired to run. The pieces fade away into nothingness as they fall. "My body and mind must be rejecting the pieces." Dash looks pass where the wall used to be in his tired mind. He sees that there is nothing there but space. Space to move around in.

Dash wakes up from mental battle and he hears Penny saying his name and shaking his body. "I must of passed out" Dash thought.

"You okay?" Penny asks.

Dash painfully and kind of unclear said, "Ya."

"You sure?"

Dash less painfully and more clear said, "I'm doing better than yesterday, but it still hurts."

"And you're able to talk now." Penny smiles.

"Ya. It hurts to talk though. What a battle it was just to be able to talk."

"Can you move?"

"If I focus hard enough and if I can endure the pain then yes but because of that I can only do small movements."

"Ah."

"So you heard all that was said?" dewott asked.

"For the most part Dash," Dash said. Dash looks at dewott's scalchops which reminds Dash that his is missing. "Do any of you know where my scalchop is?"

Servine walks up to Dash. She has the scalchop on her chest. She grabs the shell and puts it on Dash's belly after handing Penny the heart scale that was originally making its home on Dash's chest. "There you go." Servine said.

Dash looks at his long lost shell. "Thanks." Dash pauses, "Without this I'm defenseless."

Penny looks at Dash, "No. You're not defenseless without your shell. Just because a warrior goes into battle with weapons doesn't mean he's any stronger. Those with heart and pride have the most powerful weapon of all."

Sparks, dewott, and servine nod in agreement.

"But, maybe the weapon makes the warrior."

"No warrior always has their weapon on them."

"I guess."

"What wrong Dash?"

"I've been laying in bed for the past few days and you all have taken care of me. What have I done for you guys? Nothing." Dash pauses to relieve some of the pain of talking. He starts talking again, "Nothing. Why do I deserve to be cared for? Why? Why? I don't know. I've done nothing for you. Nothing."

Sparks replies, "You've done more than you realize."

Dash doesn't reply.

"You've helped Scouter and I complete some missions."

"Unnecessary missions."

"But missions that you helped with. Everything we do can't always be necessary."

"Ya. It's not necessary to take care of me."

"No but we want to."

Penny walks to the group of berries her and Sparks had picked and starts making juice.

"Sparks, do you really want to?"

"If it was Scouter I would want to help. If it was Cyndaquil, I wouldn't help him. Since it is you, I will help."

"Thanks Sparks."

Penny walks back with berry juice on her hands to Dash with a cup of berry juice. Dewott slowly yet painfully sits Dash up for the drink. Dash holds in the pain by not screaming. Dewott holds him in sitting position. Penny holds the cup to Dash's mouth and slowly pours the warm berry juice in Dash's mouth. Dash drinks the real juice. This was the one action he found that wasn't extremely painful to him. He could deal with the pain of talking but drinking was less painful. He consumes the juice until the cup is dry. Penny pulls the cup away. Penny tells the dewott to keep him sitting up. She puts the cup away. She walks back to Dash and tells him that dewott is going to let go of him and she wants him to stay sitting up. Dash slowly nods. Dewott holds him. Penny says, "Anytime. Don't give him any signal that you're going to do it but be ready to catch him. Any-" Dewott releases Dash in the middle of Penny talking. Dash fights and fights to stay up even though it is very painful and tiring. Dash's body finally gives out and he falls backwards and dewott catches him.

Dash looks at Penny and asks, "Why did you have me do that?"

"To prove to not only me but to you too that you're not as weak and defenseless as you're making yourself seem." Penny answered, "Yes, this is a simple but to a guy with an injury like yours, it is very hard and you have to be strong in order to do it. I'm just proving to you that you're not as weak as you think. If you truly try, then you should be able to do it."

"That's how I started speaking. I tried."

"Yep, you were so focused on what you wanted that you weren't going to stop until you could speak. You didn't care what the costs were to speaking, you wanted to speak so badly. Turns out that this time the cost were few and minor so the risk you took was a great risk. Sometimes they're not always that way."

"Ya... I really didn't think about the costs honestly."

"That's okay, sometimes the best route to take is to not think about it and just do it. We can over think stuff and scare ourself out of the right actions."

"Ah."

Penny turns away and puts the cup away. Dash scans the room at every one. Sparks, dewott, and servine all exchange looks at each other. Sparks soon asks dewott and servine, "If you're future Dash and Penny then why did you try to stop me from entering? You do know me."

Nether dewott or servine answer.

"Why?"

They don't answer.

"Why?" Sparks said with an annoyed voice.

Servine finally answers, "Well, you see, we thought that it was best that you didn't know this stuff. You'll be put in great danger if you follow us."

"Follow you where?" Sparks asked.

"We can't tell you right now."

"Why not?"

"Because we're not ready to go there yet."

"You waiting for Dash to recover?"

"Yep."

There is a still silence in the air. Dash starts to rest his eyes. The wind is all that is causing the noise out of the house. The trees are shaking from the cold air. Dewott, servine, Penny, and Sparks all look at Dash resting his eyes. Sparks leaves the nest to go to sleep. Penny, servine, and dewott one by one start going to their respective beds and go to sleep. Dash opens his eyes one more time to see everyone asleep. Dash painfully changes position in his bed and goes to sleep himself.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Walking with the Dark and Light Cores

Penny wakes up to sounds of rain and lightning. She rubs her eyes looks around the room. No one else was awake. She looks out the window which her bed was the closest to. The dark clouds swallowed the sky with the water beating down on the world. It's still very dark outside. That little breeze is now a howling wind blowing the branches of the trees in every direction. The nest is in the base of the tree trunk. She peeks outside to check on the tree that they are living in. The tree is moving a lot but not enough to worry about it falling and leaving them all in the rain. Penny sighs a sigh of relief and starts to worry less. She now only worries about the small possibility that another tree may collapse on the tree they're living in and forcing the tree to be destroyed with the nest. The sky gives random flashes of light in random patterns followed by a loud boom noise that shakes the ground slightly. Penny checks on everyone to see that they are sleeping soundly through this storm. She is the only one awake. "I should try to sleep some more but this storm has got me a little on edge." Penny thought, "Me staying up isn't going to stop this storm from doing the damage it wants to do." She turns to her bed. She re-checks everyone again. Then lays her head down, closes her tired eyes, shuts out all the noises of the storm, and goes to sleep.

Penny opens her eyes a few hours later. She rubs her eyes and looks around the room at everyone. Dewott is still sleeping. Dash is sleeping but he has rolled out of the bed. Servine is not in the room. Penny gets up and looks outside. Servine is standing by a fallen tree that missed the house by only a few feet. The sunlight gleams on the wet grass and trees from the storm. Penny stands on the tree that is next to servine. They exchange looks at each other and Penny said, "We had a crazy storm last night."

"I noticed." Servine replies, "We almost got hit."

"Yep. Almost."

"Most don't realize how close to death we actually are. We think that we are invincible and before we know it we're laying on our deathbeds."

"Could you imagine trying to move Dash if our tree was hit?"

"Well first we'd have to wake him up." Servine laughs a little, "It would be hard but I would force him to walk."

"Even if he couldn't?"

"Yep. I'll walk at his pace."

"But you wouldn't be going anywhere."

"Sometimes all it takes is a little nudge to get someone started."

"But he wouldn't be able to!"

Servine shakes her head. "You are just so clueless aren't you?"

"Don't forget, I'm you."

"I know me but it's true."

Penny becomes increasingly mad, "Why am I clueless?"

"Do I really need to spell it out for you?"

"Do I need to get it out of you the hard way?"

Servine laughs, "Come on now I'm you. I know all your moves and tactics and you don't know mine. Plus I'm a higher level than you."

"Why should that stop me?"

"I don't know. Why should it? Why shouldn't it?"

"Stop with these riddles!"

"Funny to hear that from you because in these similar situations that you're in, you talk in a very similar matter."

"I know but I use it to help others not annoy others." Penny readies with leaf blade.

"Who's to say that I'm not doing the same thing? Self discovery is good yes?"

Penny doesn't answer. She is only planning on when to strike.

"You refuse to think negatively about yourself so you think negatively on others. You think that because you don't understand that I'm attacking you. It's everyone's nature. We either attack others or attack our selves. You attack others."

Penny puts away the leaf blades. "So you think I'm attacking you because of my nature?"

"Yep. Sparks probably would do the same thing."

"And Dash?"

"You can answer that yourself."

Penny doesn't reply. Dewott walks out of the house. He looks around at the trees. He sees Penny and servine. He walks over to them and asks, "How did you two sleep through the storm?"

They both answer, "Alright."

Dewott stands on the fallen tree, "That's good." He looks at Penny then servine. "So what's our plan today?"

Servine and Penny exchange looks, both waiting for the other to answer. Servine finally said, "We're going to get Dash up on his feet and moving."

Penny is shocked by the answer but remains silent. She is very optimistic of Dash walking. "Dash still has his bandages on and is still recovering from that initial blow." She thought, "He can't walk yet."

Dewott, kind of surprised, replies with, "Okay. But we need to wait for him to wake up."

"He has the most random sleeping patterns I have ever seen." Penny said, "Sometimes he woke up earlier than us and sometimes he wakes up later than us."

Dewott and servine nod. They all walk back into the house one by one. Penny walks over to sleeping Dash. She turns and asks, "Should I wake him?"

Dewott shakes his head no and servine nods yes. Penny looks at them both with an unsure look. They all exchange looks at each other. Dash said, "I'm awake."

Penny quickly turns around to Dash's eyes looking at everyone. "Oh." Penny said.

"You all talk really loud." Dash chuckles and yawns.

"Sorry," they all said.

"It's okay, I needed to wake up anyways." Dash restlessly sits up.

Penny, dewott, and servine all look at Dash in disbelief. Penny starts to think that they have been underestimating Dash's ability to recover so fast. Dewott and servine are not sure how to react. They think that he shouldn't be do these things so soon and doing so well. Dash looks at them all. He smiles and says, "Oh come on now, you really think this little event could keep me down on the ground for this long." Dash looks behind him, "Looks like I rolled off my bed again."

Servine replies, "Little event? Dash you almost died."

"The whole world does not care about one puny little oshawott dying. It's the cycle of life, the big one takes out the little one except if the little ones can out number the enemy. My death would be a little event and I would be forgotten."

Servine, dewott, and Penny all exchange looks passing the reply around until finally Penny replies, "You're right. In a worldwide scale, we're nothing but another dust in the wind. Even in a regional scale we may be nothing but in a community, we may always be remembered. Of course if we do nothing even friends and family will forget our existence. Dash, you have done so much for others but you haven't done much for yourself. Don't forget who you are. Dash, you should do more for yourself so you don't forget who you are. If you don't know who you are then who will know who you are?"

Dash looks away. "So I should do more for myself so I can find myself yet I'm trapped in the bed."

"Today you're not going stay in bed." Servine said.

"What do you mean?" Dash asks.

"We're going to get you walking?"

"You sure I can?"

"Well you sat up by yourself and you're still sitting up."

Dash looks down. "Guess I am sitting up. I totally forgot that I was because I've been laying down for so long."

"You're going to walk a few steps by yourself before this is over."

"You sound very confident."

"I am."

Dash looks at Penny, "And you seem unsure."

"I am." Penny replies, "You're still recovering from this injury Dash. I'm afraid that we're pushing you too hard, too fast, too soon and that we may make your injuries worse to the point to where you can't recover."

Servine looks at Penny, "If we don't take the risk then he may not recover as fast."

"But we might hurt him more!"

"But we might help him."

Penny said in a mad voice, "Fine! Go ahead and hurt him more. When he is hurting more from you guys forcing him too hard, don't say I didn't warn you." Penny storms out.

Dewott and servine watch Penny then they look at each other. "Do you think we should check on her?" Servine asks.

"I'll check on her." dewott said. Dewott leaves the home. He finds Penny walking away in the distance with her arms folded. Dewott walks at a faster speed than Penny. Penny climbs a tree knowing that she'll probably be followed. Dewott walks under the tree that she is in. All he can see is her tail hanging down from the branch that she is sitting on. "Come on down Penny. I understand that you're mad but come down so we can talk."

Penny remains silent. The tail dangles and only the slight breeze is moving it.

"I'll go up there if you don't come down here."

Penny speaks in a saddened voice, "You can't climb trees."

Dewott stays silent. "She's right," he thought, "I can't climb trees."

A few minutes pass with no words spoken. Servine walks in with Dash sitting on her back. She sets Dash down on his feet by a different tree. Dash struggles for a second to gain some balance but he stays on his feet without using the nearby tree for support. Dewott looks at servine and Dash with a worried look. Penny's tail gets eaten by the tree only to be regurgitated in a different area away towards Dash and servine. Servine and Dash looks up at the tail. They hear Penny's voice from the tail, "Why is he out here? He could get hurt."

"He wanted to go outside." servine answered, "So I let him out of bed and brought him outside. Don't worry, he didn't walk here. I had to carry him here." She looks at Dash, "You're heavier than you look."

Dash looks away and replies, "I could have tried to walk."

"Nah, it's alright that I carried you."

Dash looks up at Penny's tail. "Penny, please come down here. You know I can't climb trees."

Penny's tail disappears. There is no movement going towards the ground. Servine climbs the tree. They hear Penny climb higher in the tree to the highest point of the tree. Servine climbs three or four branches under Penny. Any higher and she would risk braking the branches. She looks up at Penny. She can see more than Penny's tail this time. Penny is facing the opposite direction. "Come down Penny." servine said.

"No." Penny answered softly.

"Come on Penny. I'm sorry."

"You say it but do you really mean it?"

"Yes I do Penny."

"Do you really?" Penny turns on the branch and faces servine, "Are you really sorry? Or are you just going to do the same thing that caused me to go up this tree?"

"Yes, yes, and no."

Penny climbs a branch down. "I guess I did overreact." She climbs another branch down. "You were only stating your opinion." She lands on the same branch servine is on and a loud creaking noise from the branch is heard. Both servine and Penny freeze. They look at each other. Penny slowly moves a branch down. Penny firmly stands on the next branch. Servine let's Penny move down another branch before she moves again. They make it to the ground safely. Penny looks where Dash was standing only to see that he wasn't there. Dewott and servine look in the same direction. They all look at each other with puzzled looks. Penny looks at dewott, "Where is he?"

"I don't know." dewott answered.

"How don't you know? He was near you."

"I was wondering how everything was going up there and I kind of got distracted."

"We need to find him."

"How far do you think he could have gone?" servine asks.

"Not far," dewott answers, "he can't walk fast. He also isn't full strength yet."

"But this is Dash we're talking about." Penny said. They all walk around in different directions to search for Dash. After a few hours it starts to rain and they all meet up again. Penny and servine shiver.

Dewott looks at them, "We need to back home." he said.

Penny whispers, "But Dash..."

They all make there way to the home which was hard to navigate due to the visibility being lowered by the never ending drops of rain. They all walked in to see Dash sitting on his bed looking out the window. Penny sits next to Dash and asks, "Why did you leave suddenly without telling anyone?"

"It was going to rain and in reality none of you would have heard me even if I yelled."

"You had dewott there with you."

"Physically but not mentally."

"How could you tell it was going to rain if we couldn't see the sky?" dewott asked.

Dash looks at dewott, "Well, you should know because you're me."

"I don't know though or I don't remember."

"Well, I noticed the air was more moist than usual. The wind was blowing. It was a little bit darker in the forest which was a big indicator that the sun was being covered up by the clouds. So I figured it was going to rain."

Penny, dewott, and servine all look at Dash with amazement. "How did you learn about that?"

"When you have to learn how to survive, you'll use every little bit of information to try to give yourself the best advantage in this world. I learned how to use the moisture in the air, wind blowing, the slightly darkened sky, and the lack of flying pokémon to my advantage. All pokémon that live like the way I do from a young age then these little things are very easy for us to recognize. The rain can be deadly if we're caught without shelter. True it's not one hundred accurate but I get more accurate for every little information piece of information I pull in. And apparently it can be just as easy to lose the ability. I also know that this ability doesn't work in the winter or in snowy areas."

"Maybe I lost touch with nature," dewott said, "and that's why I lost this ability. I wonder what other abilities I've lost."

"Did you walk here?" Penny asked.

Dash nods. Servine looks at dewott and she said, "Dash is recovering really well."

"Yes he is," dewott replied, "better than we hoped for."

"Do you think we should tell them?"

Penny and Dash turn around and look at dewott and servine.

"Do you really-" dewott pauses. Servine had given the look of you're not changing my mind, "Fine we can."

Penny asks, "What are you going to tell us?"

Dewott looks at Penny and Dash, "We're going to tell you fully why we're here."

"Wait! Your mission wasn't to protect Dash?" Penny asked.

"Not exactly," servine said, "but when we learned that Dash was in trouble then we knew we needed to protect him and get involved. We never wanted to get both of you in the mission, but now that we know that Dash is in danger, you both have been force to be involved in our mission."

"What is your mission?"

"Have you heard about the light core and dark core?"

"No." Dash and Penny said.

"Dark core and light core are what helps us use dark magic and light magic. The dark core helps with dark magic and the light core helps with light magic. Now they don't give us more power as they get bigger. What they do is they cut the cost of using the magic?"

"The cost of using magic?" Penny asked.

"When we use magic, we take what many call a cost. Sometime the cost is damage. Sometimes it's a special condition. Sometimes we feel extremely tired physically. Sometimes it's a combination of that. You can use the same magic move twice but receive two different costs. The higher the level of the magic you use the more cost you'll receive. The bigger and more powerful the dark and light cores are the less cost it is to use magic. Since light core and dark core balance each other, if not affected by an outside force, when one grows then the other one grows. The problem is they grow so big and powerful to where the magic becomes so powerful and the cost so little to where it is just chaos. Everyone is fighting each other. There is death everywhere. Blood everywhere too. That's why we came to the past. We had to recover for three days from the cost. Our goal is to destroy both the cores. Of course with a small group like ours we'll need to destroy one than the other. We need to do it quickly too. If we take too long then we'll need to restart because the one that we destroyed first would have grown again. If we fail, this region will fall into utter chaos. We shouldn't delay for too long. We're at a point of time to where the light core and dark core still give reasonable costs. What scrafty attacked you with was minor. Yes it did a lot to Dash, but that was because it was placed in his chest. If he got attacked in the foot or the arm, this wouldn't be so bad. He probably still have to face darkness poisoning because of the added darkness but after that he would be fine."

Dash and Penny look at each other. Dash looks back into the middle of the group and says, "Well we need to do something."

"Servine and I will," dewott said.

"Oh no," Penny said, "You better include us in your plans."

"Ya," Dash agrees, "We're not going to sit around to wonder if you two saved us or not. We want to be there to know."

Dewott and servine exchange looks. "You both could be killed." dewott said.

Penny folds her arms, "Come on now. Dash almost died from these fools. Neither him or I are afraid of death."

"We live close to death everyday." Dash said.

Dewott and servine look at each other. Servine looks at Dash and Penny, "Do you really want to go through with this?" she asks.

Both Penny and Dash answers, "Yep."

"Alright," dewott said, "You are part of our plans." Dewott puts his hand in the middle.

"We will help you both as much as we can." Penny said as she puts her hand in the middle on top of dewott's.

"Let's keep each other safe." servine said as she puts her hand in the middle on top of Penny's.

"Let's not fail." Dash said and he puts his hand on top of everyone's, "We have a region to save. This is our home. Let's not lose it."

They all raise their hands in a confident cheer.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Penny's Little Developing Secret

Penny wakes up very early this morning. Dash was still sleeping. Servine was still curled up sleeping. Dewott was still sleeping. Penny looks outside. "Sun still remains under the horizon," Penny thought, "but there is enough light for me to see. It is my time to leave alone finally. I've always had a little tail falling me. It gets annoying." Penny gets out of the nest, "Hopefully I'll get back before they wake up. I should come back with some berries to make it seem like I was picking berries, however that would be a long time for me to be out and it would be a little out of my way. I'll play it by ear."

She walks a down a narrow path. A bigger pokemon wouldn't be able to see the path but for a small snivy, the path is visible. Dewott and servine wouldn't be able to see it but Dash could. "I hope they don't try to look for me. Knowing Dash he would see the path and go alone. There are so many forks in the road and he would easily get lost."

She takes a left and another left, then a right, then a left, then a right, then finally a left. She walks up to a very familiar tree. "Ah... this is home." She said to herself, "This is the place that I lived in before this whole storm blew everything in my life out of wack."

She is about to walk inside when she hears something land behind her and that familiar voice was heard saying, "Penny? Is that you?" She feels the bow on her tail get touched by the figure.

Penny without turning around says, "Hi Sparky."

"It is you!" Penny feels Sparky giving her a hug.

"She must not know," Penny thought, "Who knows what she would do? She definitely isn't the care with fragile stuff. I need to get her away."

Sparky lets go of Penny and says, "Where have you been?"

"I've been out and about."

"And Dash?"

"He's my little follower. Where I've been he has been."

"Ah," Sparky replies. Sparky was going to say something more but decides to hold it for herself.

Penny remains silent. "She needs to go away," Penny thought.

"So what are you doing here?" Sparky asks.

"Oh you know, just taking a walk."

"Then, why were you going to go in there?"

Penny doesn't answer. Sparky starts to walk in but Penny stands in her way. Sparky tries to move around her but Penny adjusts to every new way she used to get in. "Why can't I go in there?" Sparky asks.

"Because this used to be my home before I met you," Penny pauses, "and there are a lot of personal stuff in here that I just don't want others seeing."

Sparky gives Penny "the look" and says, "Do really think I'm that dumb? Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

Penny realizing that she has failed keeping her away replies with, "no."

"What are you hiding in there?"

Penny doesn't answer. Penny walks into her old nest with Sparky following her into Penny's home. Sparky looks around the room. There is a grassy bed and a warm mossy blanket with something under it. "Home sweet home," Penny said.

"This is it?" Sparky asks.

"Yep."

"Didn't you want to live in a more secured home? In a home with more room?"

"Nope."

Sparky looks at Penny with a confused look. "How can anyone live this way and not want more for themselves?" Sparky thought. She walks over to the mossy blanket. "And this thing kept you warm in the winter?" Sparky asks.

Penny gets a little nervous, " No, I have to gather more but once I do It's very warm and in the very cold winters, I can deal with the elements. I survive."

Sparky turns away from the blanket, "But don't you want to be in a place that is always warm even in the winter and not have to work for survival?"

"What are doing? Selling me a house? Not interested in them. This is my nest and my place. It works for me. It may not work for you but to me this is and will always be my home."

Sparky again gives Penny a puzzled look. Sparky picks up the mossy blanket in which an egg was hiding in it. Sparky goes to put up the egg but as a natural reaction Penny pushes Sparky away from the egg and holds the egg herself protecting it from the outsiders that may harm it. Sparky stares at the egg. "Is that yours?" Sparky asks.

Penny Doesn't answer. She cradles the egg in her arms.

"It is yours isn't it?"

Penny knowing that she can't hide the truth nods yes.

"Can I see?"

Penny looks at her and says, "You're seeing it right now aren't you?"

"I know but let me hold it." Sparky holds her hands out.

Penny turns away.

"Who's the Father?"

Penny doesn't answer.

"Come on. Who is he? I won't tell anyone."

"Me and you both know that isn't true, you'll tell everyone you know."

"Does he even know?"

Penny hesitates then replies, "no."

Sparky replies in shock, "What? Don't you think you should tell him?"

"Yes." Penny replies in a soft voice.

"Why haven't you told him?"

"I'm afraid of what he'll do."

"Being afraid of the unknown is normal, but what you don't realize is that we face the unknown everyday and we don't realize it. I could die today. It could be by a car or by a fall. I may not eat because of a food shortage. I may not even finish this sentence. See we all face the unknown everyday."

"Fine. I'll tell him, but I don't want you there."

"Fair enough." She gets out of the house and flies off.

Penny watches her to make sure she truly leaves. Once Penny knows that Sparky's gone she holds the egg close yet softly. She walks the trip back. The sun has fully passed the horizon. "They're awake. I know it." She gets back to the open area of where the nest is. She is relieved when she sees all three of them still by the nest. "They haven't gone looking for me." Servine, dewott, and Dash walk to Penny. They all look at the egg she's holding. She has the urge to protect this egg again yet she holds in the urge. She looks at Dash and hands the egg to him. Dash holds the egg carefully. He rocks the egg a little naturally. He smiles at the egg then at Penny. Dash asks, "Where did you find this?"

"It's always been with me."

Dash and dewott looks confused. Servine looks at Penny with a slightly surprised look. Dash asks, "What do you mean?"

"It's my egg."

Dewott and Dash are shocked. "What?" They both say. Servine stands there in silence.

She looks at Dash and says "And it's yours."

Dash blushes hard and say, "R-r-r-r-really? T-t-this is ours?"

Penny smiles and nods yes. Penny stands next to Dash as he gets to know the egg better.

Dewott and servine walk away. Dewott whispers, "We can't have that egg with us."

Servine answers, " I know. That egg will be too distracting."

"Not only that but this trip is going to be dangerous and we can't run a day-care service at the same time."

"I know. That egg will get broken broken on the trip."

"Yes. So we both agree that we need to find someone to take care of the egg while were gone."

"Yep."

Dewott and Servine walk back towards the happy family. "So , we really wanted to leave ASAP," dewott said, "and well the egg can't follow us on our trip."

Penny looks at the egg, "We understand. Can you give us time to think?"

Dewott nods. He and Servine walk away.

Dash looks at the egg , "I don't want to give up this egg." he said.

Penny looks at the egg, " We don't have to give it up. We just need someone to look after it well we're gone."

"But it can't be just anyone."

"Agreed but who? Neither of us know where our parents are plus your parents abandoned you. Sparky wouldn't be able to keep it safe plus she would probably be the biggest danger to the egg. I don't trust Fireback. There's something about him that I don't like."

"Well," Dash pauses, "That means we have Sparks. He's the only one that we know where he is."

Penny sighs, "Ya, I guess he's our best choice."

Dash and Penny secretly and sneakily walk to Sparks' main base. Sparks, sitting on a fallen tree nearby, holds his knifes and looks at Penny and Dash. Dash slowly walk up to Sparks with wary movements. Sparks smiles at Dash and warps the knifes away in a dark cloud. Sparks stands up, "Glad to see you're doing a lot better." Sparks said. Penny stands in the backround waiting. "Why is she staying away from us?"

Dash looks away slightly, "Well you see..." He pauses. "We have a very strange request."

Sparks looks at Penny. She hides the egg in her arms preventing anyone from the outside from seeing its existence. Sparks motions Penny over. Penny reluctantly walks over with Dash and Sparks. She stands on Dash's side of the conversation. "So what is this request and what is she hiding?" Sparks asked.

Penny remains silent. Dash looks at Penny and said, "We need to show him." Penny's arms don't move.

"Show me what?" Sparks asks. Penny looks at Dash then Sparks realizing that they were both looking at her. Penny, wishing she could be smaller than she actually was so maybe she could sneak away, shows the egg to Sparks.

Sparks folds his arms calmly even though he is very shocked. Sparks looks at Penny and Dash, "So you want me to take care of your egg?"

Dash and Penny nod.

"This is both of yours right?"

They nod.

Sparks looks at the egg.

Penny looks at Sparks, "Don't use any dark magic on our kid."

"Don't worry. I won't. I've done this once before."

"Whose egg did you take care of last time?" Dash asks curiously.

Sparks looks away. "My own." he replies.

"Wait!" Penny said shocked, "You had a kid too?"

"Yep."

"Well where is he?" Dash asked.

"She was a girl. And I don't know."

"Oh. Well what happened?"

"I was stupid..." There is an awkward and depressing silence in the air. Sparks finally continues while holding back tears, "There was me, my daughter, and my girlfriend or as you two may call it my mate. Any who, I didn't know any magic and this was before Sparky went all crazy and started to attack me. We were out in this nest in a tree trunk. It was dark. We were all sleeping. It was very peaceful. We were actually "uncivilized" like you two. Then they came. Those stupid humans. They went and took my love and my child away. I tried to fight them but, I was weak. They shot me with a tranquilizer. I-I-I tried to fight the drug b-b-but I couldn't. I fell asleep while my family was taken away. I could still remember my little girl screaming 'daddy.' I-I-I couldn't find where they were taken. To this day... I look for my daughter and my girlfriend even though it all may be hopeless. Oh what I would do to be able to see them again. I would sacrifice myself if it meant they were safe."

Dash and Penny looks down. "That's very sad." Dash said.

Penny looks at Sparks, "It wasn't your fault. You gave it your all to try to save your family. If you didn't do anything, then it could be considered your fault. You were a great father to fight even though your own life was at risked. If I lost my egg... I would go crazy and I'm sure you were confused and broken too."

Sparks nods.

"I now trust you our egg." Penny said, "I didn't before we showed up but now I do." She hands the egg over to Sparks.

Sparks holds the egg carefully. "So where are you two going that you need an egg sitter?"

Penny and Dash look at each other. "Should we tell him?" Dash asked.

Penny nods and turns to Sparks. "We're going to the dark and light cores."

"Ah. I've heard of them before. It's a very dangerous trip. Why would you want to go there?" Sparks asked.

"Well you see, we're there to destroy them."

Sparks surprised said, "Those help us magic users not take the cost of magic. Why would you want to destroy them?"

"They'll get too big, too powerful if we don't destroy them and have them start over. If we don't complete this, there will be lots of bloodshed because magic users will become too powerful and they will lose there minds."

Sparks nods, "I understand. Those with too much power with no check in place get corrupted."

Dash and Penny nods.

Sparks looks at the egg. "Don't worry about your kid. It'll be here when you get back. I'll take care of it like it was my own daughter."

"Thanks Sparks." Dash said.

"You're welcome. Go destroy those cores."

"We will." Penny said.

Penny and Dash slowly turn away and walk back towards dewott's and servine's house. With more than half of the day gone, Dash and Penny had no time to prepare. Luckily they had prepared for us. We'll go in the morning.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Down With the Dark Core

The next morning, dewott wakes up first. After seeing that everyone is asleep he stands up. He looks at Dash and Penny egg free. He then looks at servine. He checks the inventory. "_Ten oran berries. Three sitrus berries. Two lum berries. Twenty apples. Lots of water. A map that shows where their objectives are. And that's it. Is this enough? I guess we can find more food if the time comes. But will we have enough time to be able to pick more_?"

Dash sits up and looks at dewott curiously. Dewott, not noticing that Dash is awake now keeps talking, "We should go to the dark core first. They have a strong dark magic base and not a strong light magic force. Of course they still have a strong light magic troop too but we can weaken them a lot by destroying the dark core first. We'll do more damage by destroying the dark core first rather than destroying the light core first. Of course attacking the light core may be easier to attack. Grrr... Which do we attack?"

"I think we should attack the harder of the two first," Dash said.

"So the dark core?" dewott asked.

"If that's the harder of the two then yes."

"It is. But why?"

"Because if they'll probably be split between the two. So once we destroy one, they'll all move to the other one. If we can weaken most of them before they can all gather together then that'll be the best option."

"Yeah..."

"Are we going to do it that way?"

"Well, there is really no other choice that has makes as much sense that I can think of."

Dash and dewott wait for Penny and servine to wake up. They exchange little words after that. They both were very disconnected with each other. Servine and Penny woke up within minutes of each other.

After giving them a few minutes to wake up, dewott starts talking about the plan. "So we're going to attack the dark core first. The dark core will be underground unlike the light core being up in the hills. This will be a long trip. Now, we have a map that will make this easier. This dark core will be hard to see. We'll need a light to be able to see it. Servine with her light magic can be used to see it."

"What does it look like?" Penny asks, interrupting dewott.

"It's a dark ball. Now this is not black. This is darker then that. It will actually 'eat up' any light that comes near it. So it'll be hard to see it. Come on. Let's walk there and talk." They all start walking to the cave where the dark core is. Servine keeps an eye on the map to make sure they're going the right way. "Now this may be a powerful object but it is actually pretty fragile. We need to go in close to use a physical attack. We can't use any of our long range attacks because it'll be reflected by an invisible energy shield."

"Energy shield?" Dash asked.

"Yes. These shields have an electrical charge to them. Dark core has a positive charge and the light core has a negative charge. These charges create the shield. With these cores growing, these charges are getting stronger, thus causing them to get closer to each other. If we let them, they will come together and combine into one big core which will be very dangerous. The substance will become unstable and the amount of energy that these two cores have will be very deadly to the region."

"What will happen?" Penny asked.

"The cores will collapse and they will disappear. Now le-"

"How is that dangerous?" Dash interrupts.

"Well, light core and dark core are very important to the land. They bring balance to the land. The right amount of rain for us water types and to have the plants grow around for grass types. There is enough lightning to light the fires for the fire types. However without them, there is no energy in the system thus making the ecosystems basically die in this region causing massive range of death by hunger and dehydration."

"But aren't we destroying them?" Penny asks.

"Only temporarily. If they combine, they'll be gone for hundreds of years. The way we're destroying them, they'll be gone for a few days."

"How far in the future are you two from?" Dash asked.

"About ten years."

"So that means that we have ten years to destroy the cores." Dash concluded.

"No we don't."

"Why not?"

"Because as more discover about the expanding cores preventing them from cost, the more pokemon that want to protect them so that they gain power. So we don't have the time to lay around. The more powerful we get, the more corrupt we become."

"I see."

"Any who, back on topic, I think Servine and I will deal with any enemies that get in our way at the core and you two can go in and destroy the core. Just one good physical attack and it'll be destroyed and if we destroy the other one in time then their size will be reset to their original forms."

"About four centimeters radius," dewott motions about how big the ball would be with his hands, "but it will grow to about twelve centimeters." again, he motions with his hands. "It'll stop at that size until they start to over grow like they are now."

"This has happened before?" Penny asked.

"Yes. It happens about every two hundred years. Every time so far, they have been destroyed. However this is the first time that we failed the first attempt."

"Wait. Can't we just go back to this time again and again to retry infinite times?"

"No."

"Well why not?"

"No is really too sure. There are theories out there but no one can really prove it. For some reason we only get to time travel once. Some how some other force that is greater than light and dark magic blocks us from reentering the time zone that allows us to move to different times and this affect goes to our present selves."

No farther words were passed between any of them. They did not stop to rest because dewott wanted to get there as quickly as they could. Dash and Penny's feet starts to get really soar. They haven't walked this far so quickly in a long time. Not only that it took them two steps to complete the same distance as one of dewott or servine's step. Still, they kept on moving at the same pace as the group afraid of the consequences of what would happen if they failed. The familiar forest ended after a few hours of walking. It was a slow change too. First the trees were becoming more spread out. Then the grass started to change. It was becoming taller. Eventually, Dash and Penny couldn't see over the grass even if they jumped. They were walking blindly following dewott and servine. This was no place for them. When the sun hit half way between horizons, the heat started beating them all down. With no tree to hide from this life giving evil, they all walk with no verbal complains. Servine passes water around to everyone before we all died from our stupidity. "Glad we were packed well." everyone was thinking. They reach the cave which was basically a hole in the ground with a slight inclined. They all walk in to retreat from this heat. Dewott and servine finally stop to rest. Dash and Penny lay on the cool and moist rocks. Although it was the worst place to lay because of the hard ground, but for them they were very comfortable. They were happy to trade the uncomforts of the grasslands for the uncomforts of the cave. Dewott grabs everyone an apple. Everyone happily eats their respective apple. The moist apple helped counter act the dry conditions out in the grass land. Dewott stands up and looks at everyone. Servine stands up next and looks at Penny and Dash. "_Guess that was the signal to start going again_." Penny thought. Penny stands and Dash does the same. Dewott nods and heads into the cave. Servine walks next to dewott and makes a light ball which illuminates the path way ahead. The ball of light didn't flicker. Not once. There was a lot of signs of life but nothing alive was seen. The cave narrowed so much where everyone had to walk in a line. The light ball that servine had made was the same brightness but the light wasn't traveling as far. Soon, the light ball wasn't helping at all. Dash and Penny, walking in the back, couldn't see more than the pokemon in front of them. Dash grabs and holds Penny's tail so he doesn't get lost. Dewott turns sideways because the walls have become so narrow that he needs to turn sideways to continue. The random drips of water from the ceiling echo through the cave. They couldn't tell which direction each drop were coming from. The pathway opens up. Everyone stops at the opening of the room. Their eyes adjust a little to the dark. The walls and air are pitch black but something near the end of the room was darker. Penny and Dash assumed that this ark thing was the dark core. Dewott and servine start walking towards the core with Dash and Penny following closely. Figures lighter than the dark core walk around the core.

"We can't allow you to complete your mission." said one of the figures.

This voice was very familiar to Dash but he keeps to himself. Dewott grabs both scalchops and servine makes these daggers of light. These daggers were bright but the light from these daggers were not even touching the walls. They dimly lit the floor around her.

"Why would you want to attack these?" said the other figure, "These cores give you power. Imagine teleporting to where ever you want and visiting any time without fear of any cost."

Dash starts to second guess this trip here. "_Why an I here_?" Dash thought "_Am I here to help the region? Or am I hurting it? Is this dewott and servine our future selves and are they truly the good party here? Then again why would the skunktank and scrafty attack me earlier if at the time I was no threat to them? Wouldn't they try to sway Penny and I away from servine and dewott if they were the evil one and skunktank and scrafty were the good ones?"_

"Because we fight for the better future." dewott said, "Sure, we'll see the cost now but the future in the very end will be better."

"_That's right_." Dash thought, "_If we get rid of the problem now we will deal with less consequence and give us a higher chance of stopping these cores next time they blow up again because they wouldn't have moved as close to each other_."

One of the figures fires a shadow ball which was almost impossible to see. The shadow flies at dewott who blocks it in the last second of reaction. Finally, dewott's, servine's, Penny's, and, Dash's eyes had adjusted enough to see the skunktank and scrafty in the darkness. No one was really surprised but Penny becomes very angry. "So it was you that attacked Dash!" Penny said. Penny runs at skunktank and scrafty with leaf blades in hands but she is held back by dewott and servine. "I'm going to kill you for what you two did!"

Skunktank and servine laugh. "You really think a little snivy like you can take on both scrafty and I."

"No. But that's why I have Dash, servine and dewott to help."

"It's two against four. Give up. You can't win."

"You really think that just because you have the advantage in numbers that you'll have the advantage in the battle. That's only one of the small factors into this battle."

"_Something else is at play_," Dash thought, "_They're acting pretty calm even though we clearly have the upper hand. Maybe they realize that it is easier to defend something rather than attack something_."

"Remember the plan." Dewott said. Dewott and servine run at skunktank and scrafty who were ready for them. Skunktank fires a smoke ball on the ground which causes smoke to go all around the room. Dewott and servine stop their advances and look around trying to see through the smoke. The smoke surrounds dewott, servine, Dash, and Penny. Dash gets pulled into the smoke. Penny see the dark hands pull Dash into the dark. Penny runs into the dark smoke following the sounds of scuffling in the smoke. She can't see more than an arms length in front of her. Dewott and servine stand ready for a surprise attack through the smoke. Penny trips over something in the smoke. The smoke clears out of the room. Penny looks at what she had tripped over and see that it was Dash laying on the ground. Dash sits up with scratches all over his body. Penny gets up and walks to Dash. Skunktank and scrafty are still standing in the same spot chucking. Dash looks around scared. "Where's my scalchop?" Dash said scared.

"You really think we were dumb enough to come alone?" scrafty said. A sablye drops down from a hole in the ceiling holding Dash's scalchop and lands perfectly next to skunktank. Sablye laughs, "I can sell this on the black market for high profit!"

Dash angrily looks at sablye and his own scalchop. "Give my scalchop back! It's mine! I need it!"

"Well maybe you should take better care of it. I'm sure its new owner will take better care of it than you."

Dash stands up. There is sharp pain from Dash's scratches. This pain is felt all over his body yet, Dash barely feels the scratches. "I take good care of my scalchop. It's one of the few things I still have. And you're not taking it!" Dash runs at sablye, forgetting that skunktank and scrafty was there too. Dewott grabs Dash with one paw and pulls him back from his charge. Dash falls backwards. Dash looks at dewott then at sablye. "_I'm useless without my scalchop_." Dash thought, "_Look how big everyone is than me.I need my scalchop to even be a minor threat. Am I even helpful_?" Dash stands up.

The sablye laughs and said, "You better get used to being scalchopless because you're not going to see it again."

Dewott fires a dark arrow towards skunktank, sablye, and scrafty. Servine followed this arrow even though the arrow was much faster than her. Skunktank and scrafty dodged to the left while sablye dodged to the right. Servine runs in between them, separating sablye from the group. Servine points a light blade at sablye and the "trouble duo." Dewott runs in next to servine standing back to back with her. Dash and Penny stand where they were left trying to figure out what to do.

Dash really wanted his scalchop back. That's really all he wanted. If they failed this mission, they can try again. Oshawotts only get one scalchop and that one scalchop is needed for them to live. They can always try again if they failed the first time around. Dash runs at sablye with Penny instantly following. Sablye looks at Dash and Penny running at him. He smiles as they got closer. Dash tries to tackle sablye. Sablye sidesteps Dash and hits him in the back with his own scalchop. Penny, not far behind Dash, swings leaf blades at sablye. Sabyle ducks under the blade and hit her with Dash's scalchop. Dash looks over at the dewott and them and see magic arrows flying everywhere wildly by them be reflected by their magic shields. Sabyle see Dash distracted and scratches Dash multiple times and very fast. Penny hits sablye off of Dash with a leaf blade. Sablye lands on his feet and jumps back, still holding on to Dash's scalchop. Dash turns at sablye with the look of revenge yet having the feeling of vanity. Penny runs at sablye again this time swing low. Sablye tries to duck under the blade but the blade is too low for him to duck under and he gets hit in the head. Sablye gets angry and runs at the "defenseless" Dash. Dash brasses himself as the sablye runs at him. Sablye scratches Dash with one angry powerful blow after another. Dash, with his blue marking across his face glowed while enduring the attacks of sablye, spawns a dark magic dagger in his hand and stabs sablye in the chest area with this dagger. Sablye backs away from Dash holding his wound. The dagger disappears in Dash's hand and his marking stops glowing. Sablye takes one final breath before falling to the ground. Dash's scalchop drops next to sablye. Dash, kind of surprised that he killed the sablye, walks over and grabs his scalchop. Penny looks at Dash not sure at how she should react. _"Should I be happy that he got his scalchop back or perhaps a scared that he knows all this dark magic_?" Penny thought. Penny didn't have a long time to think about it because Dash grabs her hand and said, "Let's go destroy the core while the other two are distracted." Penny nods and they both run at the cores dodging every wild dark and light arrows that went their way. Dash grabs his scalchop and Penny grabs her leaf blades. Dash running at full speed runs into an invisible barrier and gets knocked backwards to the ground but Penny runs right through the barrier without breaking it. She was so focused that she never realized that Dash had fallen. She slashes the dark core and the core shatters very easily. Skunktank and Scrafty, realizing that they lost this battle teleports away. Dash gets up slowly. Dewott keeps their victory celebrations short by reminding them that they still had one more core to destroy. They all rest at the mouth of the cave. Servine tends to everyone's wounds. They eat and talk for a little. After about an hour, they are ready to go again.


End file.
